Reality
by Jedi Alanna
Summary: What would YOU do if the Hogwarts gang came up to you and told you you had magic? this is a funny and insane story about whats real and whats not, kinda serious, kinda NOT, just read and find out! rating to be safe
1. Introductions and a Cow Project

**_Alanna_****_: ok, so we have to do one of these disclaimer mibobers, here goes. Anything you've seen in the books, or even remotely recognize, except our new characters, we don't own._**

SweetCheeksDracoLuver: Well, what are you WAITING for??? READ! I'm sorry if there are parts where we seem a bit… insane… but I was sleep-deprived… I don't know why Alanna agreed to my ideas when I was sleep-deprived but whatever… Oh and about the disclaimer: you know I own Drakie, I know I own Drakie, so it's all good! :}

**_IMPORTANT!!!!:_** _"the gang" = Monica, Michelle, Yvette, Carlos, and Cesar!_

Chapter 1

DREAM (AN: these are bits and pieces. It looks like a slideshow. All of these images are flashing past.)

Monica ran down a passageway, her little toddler feet pattering on the cold stone.

Her friends and her twin ran beside her.

Her parents and friends' parents ran behind her.

A resounding "BOOM!" came from the stone overhead.

Monica screamed, and her twin brother Carlos put a protective arm around her.

Tears streamed down her face.

Her brother's eyes were wide with fear.

Everyone in the passageway picked up their pace.

At the end, there was a trapdoor above their heads.

She and her friends pushed it open.

Everyone ran out, the parents stooping to pick up their 4-year-old children.

They were inside a shop.

All of the lights were off.

They snuck out of the shop, colliding with a couple of chairs in the dark room.

They stepped out into the cold night air.

The door closed soundlessly behind them.

They ran to an alleyway next to the shop.

The parents put them down.

They were all touching a rubber duck on the floor.

Suddenly, a man in a black hooded cloak ran past the alley.

He screamed something and turned around.

A "POP!" could be heard echoing through the alley.

Another tall man stood in front of them and laughed.

The laugh was cold, and chilled her to the bone.

She screamed.

Her mother and brother, who were right next to her, hushed her.

The tall man stared at her for a couple of seconds

She could feel his piercing red eyes boring into her chocolate-y brown ones

He looked around at everyone else.

The other man also stared intently at them. "Slytherins? Gryffindors? Wha-?" he asked, confusion written all over his face.

Then they saw the rubber duck. They seemed momentarily stunned.

"Hold on to the duck!" commanded one of the people in the group.

They did.

They felt as if there were a hook around their necks.

They were jerked away from the alley.

Monica shut her eyes tight.

They landed on soft grass.

END OF DREAM

The alarm clock went off at 6:00 with a "beep, beep!". Monica Sanchez opened her eyes wide. She was covered in a thin layer of cold sweat. She looked at the clock and did what she always did, contemplated getting up, vetoed the idea, and hit the snooze button. She didn't want to have that dream again, but she was too tired to care. She had had this dream many, many times, but she didn't have a clue as to what it could mean.

Her dream self always insisted that what happened in that dream was real, yet her woken self could never remember anything of the sort. The only thing that her dream mind knew was that the laugh came from an evil man. A bad, bad man. After all, she was only four years old in her dream. She knew this, and every time the bad man laughed, she would start sweating and tossing in her sleep, only to be rescued by the alarm clock on her nightstand.

Ever since she had first begun to have this particular dream (nightmare if you will), she had loved rubber ducks. She collected them. Her entire bathroom was devoted to ducks. (Her room was reserved for cows.)

"Slytherin." She whispered. How weird. The word tasted/felt like a hiss; cold, slithering snakes, ambition, and victory.

"Gryffindor." She said. The word tasted/felt like a roar; giant, roaring lions, bravery, and pride.

Somewhere on the other side of the house, she could hear the sound of her twin brother, Carlos, getting up and getting ready for the first day of school.

Ten minutes later, when the alarm clock went off again, Monica reluctantly (VERY reluctantly!) hoisted herself out of bed and blearily made her way toward the bathroom to wash her face. She looked at herself in the mirror. A sixteen year old, maturing girl stared back at her with wide, brown eyes. Her hair was as unruly as ever, and kind of poofed out like a triangle, making her look like she had a yield sign growing from her head. A very dark brown yield sign.

Later in the kitchen, after she had dressed and done all the things people are supposed to be doing in the morning (this included fixing her yield sign hair), she saw Carlos, disgustingly awake. His dark brown eyes reflected his happiness; it was, after all, the first day of school. Carlos LOVED the first day of school.

"Come on Twerp, I'm driving today!" he said cheerfully. Ah, yes, that was why he was extremely happy. They had just turned sixteen and had both gotten their licenses and they both had wanted to drive all of their friends to school. But they obviously couldn't so they had come up with a schedule as to who got to drive which days. Monica was Monday's, Carlos was Tuesday's, Yvette was Wednesday's, Michelle was Thursday's, and Cesar was Friday's. The first day of school just so happened to be on a Tuesday.

"Oh shut up." She smacked his head, messing up his perfectly gelled and spiked dark brown hair. Monica wasn't much of a morning person.

She then had to duck; Carlos had thrown the remainder of his bagel at her as they headed out the door.

Outside, they were met by three of their friends that lived in the same cul-de-sac with them, Michelle Roberts, Cesar Gregors, and Yvette Hennaniz.

Monica looked at Michelle and Yvette. "You guys! You look GREAT!" They smiled and said the same to her. Michelle looked remarkably like Monica. In fact, most people thought they were sisters. Their very similar yield sign hair and brown eyes gave that appearance.

Yvette, however, was shorter than either Michelle or Monica, and had straight brown hair with green/gray eyes. Her long lashes made her even cuter, and NOBODY could resist her puppy-dog face.

Cesar had grown taller over the summer and was a lot more muscular. He had bleached the tips of his brown hair. This contrasted his really round hazel eyes.

All five had been the best of friends for as long as they could remember of all of their sixteen years and their parents were also fairly close.

Piling into the tiny lime green VW bug or 'buggy' as the girls called it, they set off toward school. They sped off, and suddenly the five anxious sophomores got to school.

In the first class of the morning, Geometry Honors, the gang was surprised to find out that the teacher they had expected to see, Mr. Armp, wasn't there, instead, they saw Mr. Schab the principal.

Surprised, but still rather nervous, they sat down with the rest of the class, and waited for the bell to ring. It did all too quickly and they sat, unsure of what to do, until Mr. Schab started to talk.

"Hello, I'm Mr. Schab and I'm your principal, and also, for now, your Geometry teacher. I caught your old teacher, Mr. Armp, in Burger King eating a burger so I fired him, but, unfortunately, the school board couldn't find me another teacher so here I am."

Everyone but the gang (Monica, Yvette, Cesar, Carlos, and Michelle) sat, unsure what to make of this announcement. They knew that Mr. Schab practically worshipped cows. They knew Mr. Schab quite well; in fact, they always talked to him about everything. He was like an uncle to all of them. A hand from one of their new classmates was slowly raised into the air.

"Why did you fire a teacher for eating a burger at Burger King, isn't that what you're supposed to do there?" a girl with long, bushy hair said tentatively.

Mr. Schab looked surprised she asked. "Well, burgers are made from cows," as if that explained everything.

"Right…" the girl said skeptically, although she made no further argument.

"Anyways, it's time to take roll. Just say here when I say your name."

"Anderson, Haley"

"Here" said a girl in the front of the class.

"Chang, Cho"

"Here" said an oriental-looking girl who sat filing her nails in the back of the classroom.

"Granger, Hermione"

"Present" rang out the bushy haired girl.

"Gregors, Cesar"

"Here" said Cesar

"Hennaniz, Yvette"

"Here" said Yvette

"Malfoy, Draco"

"Here" drawled a blonde, pale and, currently, sneering boy in a bored voice.

"Potter, Harry"

"Here" said a dark haired boy with glasses

And so it went, all the way through "Weasley, Ronald", who happened to be a gangly redhead, covered in freckles.

Finally, they started ACTUAL math. The lesson in itself was one of those back to school, what we're going to be studying lessons, and was very boring. The highlights of the lesson were when Mr. Shab was interrupted by Hermione when he did the problem wrong, and a couple of small incidents concerning Ronald Weasley, whoever he was.

INCIDENTS

"AHA, I GOT IT!"

Startled, Mr. Schab stared, and hesitatingly, asked "What, uh exactly DID you get?"

Ronald stared up, and embarrassed said, "Uh, did I say that out loud?"

"Yes you did Mr. Weasley, quite loudly in fact."

"Uh, I just found my calculators ON button." He said, proudly.

"I see,…" said Mr. Schab, who clearly didn't, and continued with his lesson.

"What the heck was that about?" whispered Yvette to the others.

"Dunno, I think he doesn't know how to use a calculator," replied Cesar, in an equally hushed tone.

"That's STUPID!" protested Monica. "EVERYONE knows how to use a calculator! He wouldn't have gotten this far in school if he didn't know how to use a calculator!"

"Maybe he was trying to be funny," Observed Carlos. "Now shut up, I'm trying to learn here."

"Whatever! It was probably the dancing bananas!" said Monica, with a small smile. This was an inside joke of hers and her friends. She accused the dancing bananas of EVERYTHING.

Yvette and Michelle smiled.

The boys rolled their eyes, and they all went on with their math problems.

and 

Monica, Carlos, Michelle, Yvette and Cesar were all getting extremely bored. Michelle pointed out that the new kid, Ronald or something, was staring openly at the overhead projector. Yvette could barely contain her giggling when he tapped the Harry kid and asked him, in a very loud voice, where exactly was that light coming from.

The next two classes were pretty much the same, but then the gang noticed something really odd.

They all were in the same classes, but they figured that Mr. Schab had planned it like that. What was really odd was that those five other kids were in those same classes with them. They knew each other, were obviously new, and by listening to the roll call, they found out that the kids' names were Cho Chang, Hermione Granger, Draco Malfoy, Harry Potter, and Ronald Weasley,. But they were odd in more than one way, and it seemed to the gang that they had a distinctly British accent.

Ronald, Draco, and Cho seemed to need step by step instructions from the other two on how to operate even the simplest of machines, and in Business Systems and Technology class, they stared in awe at the shiny screens. The rolly chairs were particularly amazing to them. All they did the whole period was roll around the room holding spinning contests.

Soon it was time for lunch, and the gang decided to find out exactly what was going on with these new weirdos that had infiltrated their school. So at the beginning of lunch, they went up to the new kids' table.

"Hey, we noticed you guys were in a lot of our classes," said Cesar.

The new kids looked rather uncomfortable, and Hermione answered for all of them. "Why yes, it would seem as though our schedules all look very much alike. Why don't we introduce ourselves, I'm Hermione Granger."

This sparked a round of introductions, which was fairly pointless, because both groups had heard the others names being called during roll call, although the gang did learn that Ronald's name was abbreviated to Ron.

After they had gotten the introductions out of the way, Cesar, who had no tact, asked bluntly, "So did you guys come from England?"

Looking faintly surprised, again Hermione answered for them all when she replied, "Why yes, but how could you know that?"

The gang exchanged incredulous glances, "Well, you guys do have fairly strong accents, I think that would tip us off," replied Carlos sarcastically.

"So why are you here?" asked Cesar.

"Well we're running from the government, what else do you think would drag us down to this oven you call Florida?" replied Draco in a sarcastic tone. It was the first thing the gang had heard from him other than the quiet drawl of "Here" during class.

"Very funny, but really, why are you here?" asked Michelle curiously.

"Well, we had to move here because of overcrowding at our old school," said Hermione, shrugging.

"So you moved to Florida… riiiight… that makes a lot of sense!" said Carlos sarcastically (again).

"Well it doesn't really matter why, does it? Anyways, enough about us, what about you, how long have you guys lived here?" said Hermione.

"As long as we can remember, all of us have lived here, on our cul-de-sac," replied Cesar nonchalantly.

"That's really interesting, but I see some cheerleaders over there and I have to ask them how to get my hair straightener to work properly," said Cho uninterested in the conversation around her, and she promptly went off to talk to them.

"She could probably use some help, I'd better go make sure she doesn't get into any mischief," said Carlos heading after her, an odd look on his face.

Then Draco piped up, and said, "If Chang can leave, so can I."

"Any one else want to leave?" asked Ron, rather sarcastically.

A chorus of no's and nah's and other basic forms of negative responses went around and the conversation started up again.

"So, is school always this boring around here, or did someone decide to change the system just for us?" Hermione asked.

"Its definitely always been boring, but there are a few classes that break the boringness and qualify as extremely tedious, and a few that are interesting enough to be ranked only humdrum," answered Michelle.

(AN: This, of course, was not true. But you'll learn that later.)

"Great, so we're not missing out. Is it just me or is it extremely hot out here?" said Ron, sweating like mad.

Harry and Hermione looked like they agreed with Ron, but Yvette spoke up, "Not really, were you all here over the summer? That's when it's hottest."

"It's a good thing that we weren't; I think we would have melted," replied Harry.

"It's really not that bad, but if you're from England so I guess you're used to freezing cold weather." remarked Monica with a shrug. She was kind of shy when it came to meeting new people.

"Maybe, but anyways, we know nothing about you, other that you're Floridians, born and raised, and that you all take the same classes that we do," said Harry.

"Well, we can fix that, to start with, we aren't completely Floridian, our parents were all from England at one point or another and they came to the States at around the same time, met, and lived all in the same cul-de-sac. We all have been friends for as long as we can remember, and, yeah, I like to read, I can do my homework and read and watch TV all at the same time. Yvette is a really good artist, and she can draw really well, she took Art 2-D and 3-D last year, Carlos is like this persuasive writer, he writes a lot, um, Monica is an excellent singer, she almost took Chorus this year, but decided against it, and Cesar is a video game freak, he can play any game imaginable. And as for sports, I play tennis, Yvette swims, and Cesar does a little bit of everything, Carlos doesn't believe in organized sports, and Monica just doesn't do that kind of stuff (she's more of an actress). And that's about it, what about you guys?" answered Michelle.

"Cool. So, um yeah, Cho is a ditz, Malfoy is a pain, Hermione is a know it all (in a good way), Ron is an idiot, and I'm, uh, me." finished Harry lamely.

Monica raised one brow, Yvette tried to do the same, (but failed), and Michelle just rolled her eyes impatiently. (Cesar had gone off to get some lunch for them all.)

"Fair's fair. You have to tell us more than that! We went WAY deeper than that!" Said Monica impatiently.

They looked a bit nervous, and Hermione started talking.

"Well, Harry here is really popular," Harry rolled his eyes. "At our school anyways," Harry now was trying to conceal his emotions. He succeeded… barely. Michelle could tell he was kind of mad. "He really likes basketball," Harry looked a bit surprised there but then smiled, as if in understanding.

"Great sport." He said.

Ron broke in. "Well, he IS the best Qui- Basketball player in our entire school!" He finished enthusiastically.

"I heard that." Drawled Draco from behind them. "And Pothead is NOT the best player in the school. I am!" He sauntered away.

"Well, I like to read and I'm top of the class." Hermione continued.

"The whole school, you mean." Said Ron and Harry at the same time. All three of them smiled.

"She's the Gryffindor Bookworm." Said Ron with a smile.

Harry and Hermione's smiles faltered.

Monica felt an odd sensation writhing inside her stomach. Memory sparked. "Gryffindor?" She asked.

"Oh, we have this club type of thing at our school, we named it the Gryffindor club. We have so much fun! Everyone in Gryffindor is like our family!" Said Hermione hurriedly.

Monica looked doubtful, but smiled. "Cool."

Just then, the bell rang, and the gang headed off to their AP World History class. As they arrived, Yvette, who had been leading the group, froze in the doorway. Standing where their usual teacher, Dr. Warner, should have been, stood, yup, you guessed it, Mr. Schab.

"Did he catch someone else at Burger King?" whispered Hermione tentatively.

"Dunno, but if he did, I just wonder how he's going to teach two classes at once!" replied Cesar quietly.

After the class took their seats, Mr. Schab spoke up. "Hello, I think you all recognize me, your principal and geometry teacher, and, for now, I am also your World History teacher. I caught Dr. Warner in the McDonalds down the street, and fired her instantly. Unfortunately, the school board is probably going to re-hire her if they can't find another suitable replacement, because they are still searching for a qualified Geometry teacher. I have looked over the curriculum for this class, and have decided it to be wholly unsatisfactory so, this year, we will be studying the effect of cows on history in general. The first order of business is to learn about cultures that have a special affinity with cows. Break into groups of about ten, and you will be doing a project about the effects of the Hindu's worship of cows. Any and all information you can find on the subject will also need to be included. This will be worth 105% of your grade so do a good job. I would like you to make a video about 15 minutes long, so have fun."

His words had an instant effect. Not only did they get the kids in the class to immediately break off into groups, but they caused Hermione to instantly raise her hand.

"Yes, uh, Hermione?" asked Mr. Schab, looking surprised that anyone could find his instructions anything but perfectly logical and clear.

"uh, how can a project be 105% of our grade?" she asked tentatively.

"Why, it's a very important part of the improved curriculum, but you knew that, and you're right, I think that this project should be worth more than that, so its now worth 110% of your grade," replied Mr. Schab in contemplative tone.

"But, it's impossible for something to be worth more than the class itself! And I wasn't under the impression that cows were the focal point of the AP exams come spring, shouldn't the students of this class be prepared?" said Hermione

"Well, I'll get them to change the test. After all, cows are much more important than all those wars and revolutions they wanted you to study this year, and also much more interesting. And as for the grade thing, well, I'm the teacher, the grades are what I want them to be," answered Mr. Schab patiently.

"Sure…" replied Hermione, looking confused, but she didn't voice any other complaints and went back to her group.

The gang was in a group with Hermione, Harry, Ron, Draco, and Cho. They looked at one another, and the gang had to fight to keep themselves from laughing. They succeded, but it was a near thing. The others looked, well, confused, (except Cho, who looked like she couldn't care less what they were doing) but the gang knew that this whole cow project thing was bound to be a lot of fun, and it wasn't going to be nearly as crucial to their grade as Mr. Schab made it out to be, especially when Dr. Warner came back, they knew she would, as would their Geometry teacher Mr. Armp, because the school board never held to Mr. Schab's firing of people, it had happened before, numerous times, and the teacher was always back within a week of their firing.

"Anyways," Carlos told the group, "We'd better get started on this project soon, what are you guys doing after school?"

Harry answered for all of them. "Well, nothing I suppose, why?"

"Well, we should get started today if we can, and I was wondering if you would like to come over to one of our houses this afternoon," replied Carlos patiently.

"I guess we could, what do you guys think?" asked Harry looking at Hermione, Ron, Draco, and Cho.

A chorus of affirmative noises went around and it was settled. They spent the rest of the period drawing funny cow pictures, to the approval of Mr. Schab.

* * *

The following is a new character reference. I used to HATE it when an author made up a new character and didn't explain him/her, and since I think that we didn't explain well enough, I'm putting this down here for your reference!

Name: Monica Sanchez

Talent: Singing

Interest/ Hobby: Anything involving creativity

Descriptive Adjective: Immature (in a good way)

Sport/ extracurricular activity: Acting, Dancing, Singing

Appearance: Frizzy, curly, long brown hair. Tan. Medium height.

Name: Michelle Roberts

Talent: Multitasking

Interest/ Hobby: Reading

Descriptive Adjective: Intelligent

Sport/ extracurricular activity: Tennis

Appearance: Frizzy, curly, long brown hair. Tan. Medium height.

Name: Yvette Hennaninz

Talent: Painting/Drawing

Interest/ Hobby: Anything involving creativity

Descriptive Adjective: Weird (in a good way)

Sport/ extracurricular activity: Swimming

Appearance: Straight, long brown hair. Tan. Vertically Challenged (lol).

Name: Cesar Gregors

Talent: Playing Video Games

Interest/ Hobby: Sports

Descriptive Adjective: Athletic

Sport/ extracurricular activity: All sports

Appearance: Bleached tips of brown hair. Tan. Tall.

Name: Carlos Sanchez

Talent: Persuasive (debate king)

Interest/ Hobby: Reading and Debating

Descriptive Adjective: Intelligent

Sport/ extracurricular activity: protesting sports/ extracurricular activities

Appearance: Brown, gelled hair. Tan. Tall.

Now, its time for you, the reader, to press that reveiw button!, I'll probably be updating every other day, at least till i run out of things to update, just so you know. For those of you who read this by Daluver, bear with me, I do have some new chapters done. if you want to know when the new ones will be posted, do the math, and enjoy!


	2. The Start of Something New

**_Disclaimer by Alanna: you know what this is, and you also know we don't own Harry potter, yada yada, you know the drill, though I do own a nice computer to write this on! _**

(DaLuver owns a blade of grass, a rubber duckie, and Draco Malfoy. But I suppose you all know that. :-P )

Chapter 2

That afternoon when the Hogwarts gang arrived at the Sanchez house, they were met by Carlos, who was standing outside the door. 

"Come on in, you guys, we need to get started," he said exuberantly,  "We need to get cracking on that video!"

They followed him inside, and Ron's jaw fell at the sight of the entertainment center.  He stared at it openmouthed, but was at a loss for words.  Cho looked disinterested, and it was obvious she'd rather be anywhere, mainly a salon, than at the Sanchez house working on a cow project for a kooky teacher.  Draco, as usual, had an annoying smirk on his face, that slipped only when he saw the computer and the entertainment center, but he regained his composure, and looked as disdainful as ever after a few seconds.  Hermione merely looked around and commented on the lovely rubber ducky sitting on the couch, and Harry just seemed out of it a little. 

"So, lets get working! Who wants to be the sacred cow in the movie?" asked Monica brightly.

When all she received in return were uncertain glances and, in Michelle and Yvette's case, knowing giggles, she sighed and amended, "Well who wants to work on filming and who would rather work on research?"

They soon split up into groups, Monica, Yvette, Harry and Cho working with the camera, Hermione, Michelle and Carlos on the computer and in the books researching, Ron still staring, and Draco sneering at everyone and refusing all jobs offered to him, save that of putting his name on the sheet they were going to turn in.  Finally, Ron, unable to contain his curiosity any further, spoke up, "Hey, guys, what are those boxy thingies?"

Cesar looked up and saw what he was looking at, "What the TV? And that one over there is a Playstation, and above that is a DVD player, which one would you like explained?"

"The Playstation thingy, what's that?" asked Ron in a curios tone.

Cesar looked scandalized. "How could you not know what a Playstation is? It's only the coolest video game system on the planet, except maybe for the x-box or game cube, depending on who you ask. Where did you grow up, some poor country house or something?" he asked.

When Ron didn't reply, Cesar said, in a slightly less accusatory tone, "Well, before you leave today, I'm going to teach you all about the wonders of video games.  After all, I am the best.  Video games take a lot of coordination and reflexes, not to mention patience. Why I played a game once that…"

He had stopped because the rest of the gang had just pelted him with pillows.  When he got started talking about video games, he could go on for hours, about the skill necessary and the games he'd played or wanted to.  And just about everything else on the subject he could think of.  After all, he was a video game person.

"Well, you should try them sometime, but not now, and since you're done staring, could you help me with that stuffed cow just there?"  Asked Yvette quickly, changing the subject. 

They all got back to work; Carlos soon excused himself, and returned quietly with a red snake on each arm. Motioning the gang to be quiet, he snuck up behind Cho and held one of them near her shoulder and waited.

Cho, looking at everyone staring at her, or more precisely, her shoulder, said, "Why are you guys all staring at me, I know I'm breathtakingly pretty, but honestly you all should….AHHH, GET THAT THING AWAY FROM ME!" she screamed again.  Laughter was ringing all around her and she fumed.  What is that anyway?" she asked, her fright vanished with everyone laughing at her and all. 

"It's a snake, two of them in fact.  Two red rat snakes, at your service! The duller colored ones name is Bob, and the brighter red one is Bob, wanna hold one?" replied Carlos helpfully.

"EEW NO!" Cho exclaimed, horrified.  "What if one bit me? I'd like die or something!"

"Would that be so bad?" whispered Michelle to Yvette, as Carlos explained patiently to Cho why exactly rat snakes did not bite.  Yvette giggled and they both watched Cho squirm as far away from the snakes as she could get. 

Monica noticed that Harry was very purposefully not looking at the snakes, even though she could see that he wanted to. She shrugged and let it go.

Soon the excitement over the snake died down, and they got back to work. Amazingly, they got some work done over the course of the afternoon, they didn't finish it, but they got a big chunk done. As the Hogwarts gang was getting ready to leave, Hermione piped up, "Well, its good we got so much done, why don't you guys come over to my house tomorrow to finish this up?"

A chorus of affirmative noises went around, and they settled on a time and Hermione gave instructions on how to get to her house to the gang and it was settled.

The next day, the gang showed up at the appointed time in front of a plain one-story house in their "buggy" armed with stuffed cows, the movie camera, and their completed work from the day before. Cesar had his Gameboy Advance SP with him as well, although that should have been obvious.  When they stepped out of the car, they immediately knew something was off, but they couldn't tell what.  Shrugging they headed toward the door.  A woman with bubblegum pink hair answered the door, and said to them, "Oh you must be the other kids Hermione is expecting, come in."

So the gang stepped through the door, and found the Hogwarts gang waiting for them, crowded around a big stuffed cow.  Greetings went around and the gang saw that the members of the Hogwarts gang were all touching the cow.

"Hey, why are you all touching that stupid cow?" asked Carlos, none too politely.

"We're practicing one of the rituals the Hindus used, come on, try it, touch the cow!" said Hermione encouragingly.

After exchanging uncertain glances, the gang shrugged and touched the cow.  The Hogwarts kids looked relieved, and the gang could here a soft count.

"Five… Four… Three… Two… ONE!"

Monica gasped.

**_THAT'S ALL YOU GET FOR NOW!!! BUAHAHAHAH!!!! Ahem…_**

**_Well, yea… did you lyk it? PLEASE say yes!!! If you DID say yes, then REVIEW!!!! If you didn't, then review anyways! We'd love you forever and EVER if you did!!!! _**


	3. Reality Shatters

**_Alanna: I am JK Rowling and I own EVERYTHING! MUAHAHAHAHAHA. And I'm writing on fanfiction, yeah that makes sense._**

**_Star Wars fans: read stories by Jaina Solo 2!!!_**

**_DaLuver: You all know that all I own is the blade of grass and Drakie, so let's just skip this disclaimer thingy. :-P_**

--------------------------------

Previously on Reality (DaLuver: tee hee! I've always wanted to say that!!! Sounds like a soap opera or something!):

"Hey, why are you all touching that stupid cow?" asked Carlos, none too politely.

"We're practicing one of the rituals the Hindus used, come on, try it, touch the cow!" said Hermione encouragingly.

After exchanging uncertain glances, the gang shrugged and touched the cow. The Hogwarts kids looked relieved, and the gang could here a soft count.

"Five… Four… Three… Two… ONE!"

Monica gasped.

--------------------------------

Chapter 3

Monica gasped. It felt just like in her dream. The hook around her neck, the roaring of her blood pumping ever faster in her ears, the jerk as she felt her reality shatter, the soft "Thump!" as they landed on soft grass.

The all stood up and looked around. They were by a giant lake. On the far side of that lake, she could see a castle. She shivered. It was cold here, and they were surrounded my gigantic mountains.

"I want an explanation, and I want it now," said Monica in a dangerous tone. She wanted her dream explained to her. She wanted to know what the rubber ducky and the stuffed cow were. She wanted to know just WHERE they were. She wanted to know why she was so cold. She wanted to know why Draco was looking so hot today. She wanted an explanation for all of these confusing thoughts bouncing around in her head, growing more irritating by the second.

The rest of the gang backed away from her. They knew that tone. Nothing good ever came after Monica used that tone.

An old looking man with long silvery hair and half-moon spectacles looked at her kindly and said, "You will have your explanations in due time, for now, all I will say is that you are in England. Nymphadora, will you please escort these fine youngsters to the rooms that we have assigned to them for now?"

The gang noticed the woman he was talking to, a woman with bubblegum pink hair (AN: KULE!!!).

"It's Tonks!" the lady with the bubblegum pink hair replied irritably, and led them off without letting any of them get a word in. It was probably good that she had, every one of the gang looked like they wanted more information about this strange turn of events. Monica was looking especially dangerous, and had Tonks given any indication that she would listen to anything, Monica would have showered Tonks with all of her questions.

They were skirting the lake, headed toward the giant castle. Mostly, the gang was confused. None of them knew what was going on. They looked at each other, and found comfort and strength in their friendship.

As they entered the castle through humongous front doors, the gang felt a slight chill go down their spines. There was something weird, something funny, going on here. This place had such a massive aura, that they felt it. It was as if something seeped into the very soil, something unearthly and beautiful.

Finally, Tonks spoke up, "You all will stay in two rooms, boys in one, girls in the other. Yes, you too Mr. Malfoy, we'll not separate the houses." Without further ado, she hustled them into two rooms and locked both doors.

------------------------------

In the girls room.

Hermione caught sight of a large, ginger furred cat, cried out, "CROOKSHANKS, THERE you are! I was so worried!" with that, she promptly began playing with him. Yvette followed; all possible trepidation she might have had earlier about her new surroundings vanished at the sight of the cat. (AN: Just to tell you, Yvette LOVES animals! ALL types! She'd even have loved the Hungarian Horntail in GoF! DaLuver shudders)

Cho immediately went to the farthest bed (there were five) and pulled out her impossibly large nail care set and started fixing her nails. The bimbo.

This left Michelle and Monica to talk. "What just happened, I think I missed something. One minute, we're driving to Hermione's to work on a project; the next, we're locked in a room in ENGLAND of all places," asked Michelle in an incredulous tone.

"I don't know, but it might have something to do with this dream I keep having," replied Monica, and she proceeded to tell Michelle all about her dream. "…And the feeling I had when we touched the rubber ducky was the same as when we touched that cow, there's definitely something weird going on." She finished.

"That's really strange, I've been having similar dreams…" started Michelle, then both of them and Yvette collapsed.

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Meanwhile, in the boy's room.

The boys all walked in and stood there for a full five seconds, then shrugged and split up. Cesar went to one of the beds, pulled out his GameBoy, and tried to play it, it went haywire, and he began fiddling with it. Harry and Ron sat on one of the beds and pulled out a strangely singed deck of cards and began to play something with them, in a few seconds there was an explosion and both of their eyebrows were similarly singed. Draco on the other hand just sulked on one of the other beds and was muttering to himself about the "filthy Gryffindors and mudbloods, crazy mudblood-loving headmaster", and basically being moody.

Carlos went to the writing desk in the corner and, checking that it had all the proper writing utensils, began to write, presumably an essay on why what just happened was not physically possible and they all should just go home. Bob and Bob were on his shoulders (he had brought them to scare Cho). But he didn't get to finish his essay. About five minutes after they got in the room, Carlos and Cesar blacked out.

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These are shoutouts from DaLuver to all three of my AWESOMELY FANTABULOUS FFF!!! Maybe I have more of you, but I don't remember anyone else agreeing to be my FFF! If I am mistaken, TELL ME SO I CAN FIX THIS GREVIOUS ERROR!!!

Zanza- you are FANTABULOUS!!! Thank you so much for… well, I don't know what for… but youre still really cool! Nonetheless, you didn't REVIEW last chapter! That deserves PUNISHMENT! "BRING OUT THE PINK DRESS!!! And get Clown/Snape over here!" BUAHAHAHAHAH!!! So REVIEW!!!!

Evil Gypsy- I forgot your name already!! I am SUCH the worst FFF!! Sorry times a million PLEASE remind me and I wont EVER make this error again!!

You dedicated a chapter to me??? Does that weird Miss America sob/bimbo airhead fanning of the face Thank you! Thank you! Lol and hun, Drakie is MINE!!!! O well, you get TOMMY!! The following song is dedicated to YOU and ME for being DRAKIES/TOMMYS most FANTABULOUS fans! (sung to the Barney "I love you" tune)

I like you, you hate me; let's get together and kidnap Drakie

With a great big rope, we will tie him to a chair

And stare at his great hair!

He'd prolly freak out if we did that… boo hoo! O well, we can go LIVE in AU (whatever that is) and be in the MOOVIE!!! Waddaya think? Lol. :-P Or how about we try to let the little him out of the TV? Or maybe we could talk to all of the listening inanimate objects that he has come in contact with?? Lol. We are truly weird. "I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy it!"

Amber- you are TRULY FANTABULOUS!!! Thank you for reviewing and EVERYTHING!!! I am sooo jealous! Nofe-air that you get hugged by a shirtless, wet, hott guy! :-P much luv from ME!!! :-D


	4. The Yaks

**_Disclaimer by Alanna: Not really sure if we need one of these for this chapter, we own pretty much everything, but we do NOT own Voldie sob or any other HP characters that might have wormed their way in.  
  
_**A/N: No, this is not the chapter that you've been waiting for, this is just some randomness we thought up today, but you still have to review, if only to tell us that this is a pointless chapter. This one's not really crucial to the plot, so if you don't want to, don't read it, then again, read it anyways!   
  
Chapter 3.5  
  
Meanwhile, back in Florida, Mr. Schab had been furthering his deeper understanding of the holy cows. He was to be found kneeling in a meadow in a white tunic with black splotches and sandals, facing a cow, and chanting in mystical tones. "Oh, bovine friends and companions, share with us your endless supply of Wisdom and Strength, and further our mystical cowness. I ask you, take pity on us two-leggers, and share your infinite knowledge about the ways of the world." He repeated this over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over... Meanwhile, a red-eyed man was lurking in the background, along with a herd of Yaks.  
  
DaLuver: Alanna! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY HERD OF WILD YAKS???? WHY are they IN there???  
  
Alanna: hehehe they rule, and you're disturbing the story, so let's get back to it.  
  
Daluver: grumbles about thieving co-writers fine... but, everyone, remember these are MY yaks!!!  
  
The red-eyed man began poking the yaks with a stick, startled them, and they stampeded. Mr. Schab had just started again, "Oh bovine friends and companions, share with us your endless supply of Wisdom and Strength, and further our mystical cowness, I as... AHHHHHHHHH STAMPEDING YAKS (AND IN FLORIDA TOO!) AHHHHHHHHH" suddenly his screams were cut off as he was crushed under the weight of the yaks, they weigh tons! Mr. Schab was dead, stampeded by Daluver's yaks. Suddenly, Daluver pops in and goes to Voldemort in Screaming Rage (capitalization and excessive punctuation means EXTREME rage!)

DaLuver: HOW DARE YOU STEAL MY YAKS, YOU COULD HAVE HURT THEM, YOU COULD HAVE KILLED THEM, DIE STUPID BASTARD, AVADA KADAVRA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Voldie collapsed.

Alanna: NO, Daluver, we can't kill Voldie, Harry has to do that, HELLO, THE PROPHECY!

Daluver: But he stole my yaks! Grumbles as she crooned to her beautiful yaks and petted all of them oh, all right brings him back to life but I'm still going to punish him hits him over head with wooden spoon There!  
  
A/N: yeah, that was a fairly pointless chapter, but review anyways, reviewers to this chapter will get: A YAK (which of course is made all the better by the fact that it's not real!) And we won't post the real next chapter till we got those ten reviews, so what are you waiting for, review!  
  
DaLuver: hi peepz! Yes, I have wild yaks, which I will not hesitate in setting on ANYONE!!! So, be afraid... be very afraid!!! BUAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!  
  
 RITE, NOW ALL OF YOU: REVIEW!!!!!!


	5. A Crack in the Wall

**_ Disclaimer by Alanna: Well, I think you get the picture already, but for the dumb readers who might consider suing us, WE DO NOT OWN ANYTHING EXECPT THE NEW CHARACTERS AND STUFF! If anyone out there still does not get it, they do not have the intellectual level to read this fic. So, just go away before you hurt your head. -cough-DaLuver-cough-_**

**_DaLuver: HEY! That's not nice!_**

Chapter 4

DREAM(AN: these are bits and pieces. It looks like a slideshow. All of these images are flashing by.)

They ran down a passageway, their little toddler feet pattering on the cold stone.

Their friends ran beside them.

Their parents and friends' parents ran behind them.

A resounding "BOOM!" came from the stone overhead.

Dust and dirt rained on them, slime coated the walls and stuck to them.

Monica screamed, and Carlos put a protective arm around her.

Tears streamed down her face.

Her brother's eyes were wide with fear.

Everyone else in the passageway picked up their pace.

At the end, there was a trapdoor above their heads.

The young friends pushed it open.

Everyone ran out, the parents stooping to pick up their 4-year-old children.

They were inside a shop.

All of the lights were off.

They snuck out of the shop, colliding with a couple of chairs in the dark room.

They stepped out into the cold night air.

The door closed soundlessly behind them.

They ran to an alleyway next to the shop.

Their parents put them down.

They were all touching a rubber duck on the floor.

Suddenly, a man in a black hooded cloak ran past the alley.

He screamed something and turned around.

A "POP!" could be heard echoing through the alley.

Another tall man stood in front of them and laughed.

The laugh was cold, and chilled the children to the bone.

Monica screamed.

Her mother and brother, who were right next to her, hushed her.

The tall man stared at her for a couple of seconds.

She could feel his piercing red eyes boring into her own wide chocolate-y brown ones.

He looked around at everyone else.

The other man also stared intently at them. "Slytherins? Gryffindors? Wha-?" He asked, confusion written all over his face.

Then they saw the rubber duck. They seemed momentarily stunned.

"Hold on to the duck!" commanded one of the people in the group huddled around the duck.

They did.

They felt as if there were a hook around their necks.

They were jerked away from the alley.

Monica shut her eyes tight.

They landed on soft grass.

END OF DREAM

The five teenagers woke up to a silent darkness. The only thing that could be heard was the others' labored breathing.

Yvette sat up.

"Guys?" She whispered in a scared voice.

Monica found her and slung an arm around her friend.

Yvette gratefully hugged her back. Yvette had never been fond of darkness or silence. Monica was also scared out of her mind, but she had to reassure Yvette.

"Where are we?" asked Carlos.

"How the heck should we know?" replied Cesar with a question.

"Shut-up," ordered Michelle.

"Well, let's think through this logically," commanded Monica. "What is the last thing you remember Yvette." She said, slinging her other arm around her friend.

"Well… I remember a dream," started Yvette, describing her dream. "… Which is weird because I have the feeling that I've had it before."

"Michelle, what about you?" asked Monica, fearing the answer.

"Same," said Michelle in an awed voice.

"Boys?" asked Monica with a slight tremor in her voice.

Both of them answered that they remembered the same thing.

"So we've all had the same dream. What's the big deal?" asked Cesar.

Carlos answered him, after smacking him upside the head. "Well, twerp, the big deal is that normally people don't have the SAME DREAM all at the same time. And it's worse because it's been recurring for us!" Carlos sighed. "And we don't know where we are, which is also weird because the last thing I remember before the dream was blackness and before that was being in a room with you and Harry and Draco and Ron."

"Well, we are having a conversation… So we passed out, and we are in each others' minds or something?" asked Michelle incredulously.

"It's impossible!" began Carlos.

Monica sighed. "Carlos, please don't start. We all know that our very reality has been broken, shattered even, because of this freaky thing. You don't have to either emphasize the point or put us to sleep after being thoroughly bored."

"What else are we supposed to do?" asked Carlos, annoyed.

Monica sighed. "Just shut UP!"

Carlos sighed and shut up.

They all huddled together and hugged.

After about ten minutes, they saw a purple light above them. It grew until it was the size of a grown human. The light became a translucent egg, encasing a man. The light from the egg flickered and died, but a weird sort of purple light still emanated from the man. He stood taller than Cesar, and he had an aura of wisdom and strength radiating from his body, his long, silvery hair glinted in the unnatural light, and his gray eyes twinkled with an uncanny focus. His long silver robes were emblazoned with a faded-looking crest and were trimmed with gold.

"Good day," said the man with a bow.

"Who are you?" asked Cesar.

"I am Horpenkristiner Hogwarts, but you can call me Hat," replied the man.

"Do you know where we are?" asked Yvette. Her eyes reflected her fear of this horribly dark place.

"Of course I know where you are, you're in dreamland. But, of course, your physical bodies are still at Hogwarts," answered Hat.

"Hold on, what the heck is Hogwarts? And why is that your last name? And where in the world is …" Michelle was drawn off her endless string of questions by the look on Hat's face, he was looking almost patronizing and she backed off long enough for him to answer some of her questions.

"Why, Hogwarts is one of the best schools, no the BEST school of witchcraft and wizardry of course. And it is named after me; the founders of the school were friends of mine, of sorts. And as for the question you were about to ask, well, dreamland is a place that few can access while still conscious. You five can because you're linked, and therefore can share dreams while still awake, although you're physical forms will take on the appearance of sleep. I have a suspicion about that, I think that you are the heirs of the houses long foretold in a prophecy so old that few even know of its existence in this day and age, let alone its contents. I will tell you about it on a later date. You will have questions of course, and these must be taken care of before I return you to the mundane world," replied Hat.

There was a stunned silence for a moment, and then they all exploded with questions.

"Witchcraft and wizardry, does that mean magic?" asked Cesar in an exited tone.

"It does indeed"

"But, but, but, there's no such thing as magic, is there?" asked Yvette in a hesitant tone

"Of course there's not, don't be ridiculous, Yvette!" scolded Carlos in a confident tone.

"But of course there's such a thing as magic, young fool, and it's high time you realized it. I had no idea you didn't know of your heritage, well, do you?" asked Hat in an annoyed way.

"What heritage? I mean, I know that we're British, but that's about it," asked Michelle.

"You mean you don't know anything! Well, we'd best start at the beginning. Your great great great great great great great great great…… (A/N this goes on a while)…….great grandfathers and grandmothers were the founders of Hogwarts school, and as their direct descendants, you are their heirs. As such, you are all also wizards and witches. I suppose you are all finding this out a little late, but you'll have time to catch up to the others before term starts, if you're as bright as your ancestors. But here is where I will have to leave you, don't worry, you have many new powers to discover, one of which is the ability to access dreamland. I will see you again soon. Farewell." And with that, Hat faded away, and the scenery of dreamland passed into another scene.

The five were in separate beds in a long room filled with many beds and bedside tables. People were walking around, and a plump older lady was standing over them with a worried look on her face. As soon as she saw that the gang had woken at last, she gave a sigh of relief and gave out a shout, "Albus, Headmaster Dumbledore, they've woken up!"

The old man from before hurried over and smiled at them, then asked the lady in a hushed undertone, "Well, will they be all right?"

"Of course they will, there was nothing wrong with them, except their ability (or lack thereof) to wake, after all, they were asleep for quite a while."

"How long exactly were we asleep?" asked Monica as she fumbled around to get up.

"24 hours. I believe you gave Ms. Granger, Ms. Weasley, Mr. Potter, Mr. Weasley, Ms. Chang, and Mr. Malfoy quite a fright when you fainted like that, I would hope next time you give them some warning before you pass out like that," said Dumbledore, gesturing toward the Hogwarts gang and they could all see the twinkle in his eyes as he was talking.

The gang nodded like they understood what Dumbledore was saying, but in reality, they were all anxious to get some of their questions answered, but were too hesitant to ask. Finally, Michelle ventured a question, "Where are we?"

"In the hospital wing, at Hogwarts, naturally," responded Dumbledore.

"Hogwarts?" said the gang in unison, looking at each other, their silent glances saying the same thing, "so it WASN"T a dream!"

"Yes, Hogwarts. You're situation is quite unusual, we've never found someone's magical ability so late, especially five who have such a strong presence and such unusual powers, your parents have quite a gift with the Fidelious charm, I believe your grandmother, Yvette, was the secret-keeper. Tell her well done from me next time you see her," said Dumbledore calmly.

He silenced the gangs ensuing questions with a hush, and added, "I'm sure you have a lot of questions for me, and I know you are anxious for answers so I will tell you everything you need to know right now. You are all witches and wizards and will henceforth attend Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. You have five years magical learning to make up, and only two short weeks in which to do it in, although your sponsors will be assisting you," Dumbledore again gestured towards the Hogwarts gang, and then resumed his monologue, "Doubtless you are wondering about your belongings and your parents. Your parents have been informed of everything, and were well aware of your magical powers so this did not come as a big surprise. They will be shipping your belongings by the next owl post, and although you will need several new items for your magical learning, these will be obtained by Tonks, who is at this moment in Diagon Alley purchasing them. You will find money to be of no consequence, as your parents each have quite large vaults in Gringotts, the wizarding bank, but I would advise against spending it frivolously. Since that about covers it, I now leave you to your sponsors to show you back to the rooms you were in earlier, although this time the doors need not be locked, and you will be properly sorted come the start of term feast. I believe that about covers it, so, if you would like to set off for your rooms, now would be a good time. That is, unless you would rather stay here?" he gestured to the room behind him.

"That's okay, we'll go," said Cesar quickly, and they all hoisted themselves out of their beds and followed their sponsors out of the room.

Once they were all out of the room, the gangs stopped, and looked at each other. "Well, that was weird. So what's this about us having sponsors?" asked Michelle brightly.

The rest of the gang looked at her like she was something from outer space, then shrugged and looked at the Hogwarts gang expectantly.

"Oh, yeah, we should have explained that earlier. See, I'm your sponsor, Carlos, Ron is yours, Yvette, Harry is yours, Michelle, Cho is yours Cesar, and Draco is yours Monica. Dumbledore wanted it boy-girl boy-girl. But it's getting late, we should probably get some sleep today, tomorrow is going to be really long. Five years magical learning can't be condensed into to less than two weeks easily. "

"I really don't envy you, at least Dumbledore finds muggleborns before first year!" said Hermione. With that, they all headed back to their rooms.

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Monica sighed and sat up. She knew she wouldn't be getting sleep any time soon. She listened to everyone else in the room. No-one was awake. She tiptoed to the door and walked out of the room.

In the hallway, she found burning torches, moving portraits, and large hanging tapestries.

She stared at one of the portraits, amazed.

"Can I help you?" asked the lady in the portrait.

Monica simply stared. "Uh- no, thanks. Hi."

"Well, hello dear. I'm Elizabeth. Were you Monica or Michelle?" asked the woman quite pleasantly.

"I'm Monica." She answered. She didn't know what else to say.

Elizabeth smiled. "Well, if you ever need anything, dear, I'll be around."

Around? Thought Monica. Then she saw Elizabeth walk into the next portrait. This is weird.

Just then, Cho walked out of the room.

"Hey." She said simply and sat on the floor. She leaned against the wall and patted the floor right next to her. "Want to talk?"

Monica stared at her before finally sitting down. Cho had always seemed like a type of preppy girl. The type that only talked to popular people.

"So.." She started. She offered her hand. "Hi, I'm Cho Chang."

Monica shook it. "Monica… Sanchez?" Monica smiled grimly and leaned against the wall. "It's so weird. I don't even know who I am."

Cho looked at her expectantly.

"Well, Hat, or whatever his name was, he said that I'm an heir or something to his old friends. And I guess he meant that I'm not really a Sanchez anymore. I get the feeling that I never was."

"Well, Dumbledore didn't tell us exactly who you were. Well, he probably told the Golden Trio, but not me. So I couldn't really tell you…"

"The Golden Trio?" Asked Monica.

Cho bit her lip. "Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Harry is a sort of famous hero. And Hermione and Ron are his best friends. It's like they're the center of the universe."

They sat there in silence for a while. "So, about magic…" started Monica.

Cho smiled. "I know it's hard to believe… but its just… there. It's something that I grew up with. I'm actually muggle-born, and when I got my letter of acceptance here, I didn't know what to think. Ever since I started here, life has been more… exciting. I've been happier." Cho looked at her. "I don't expect you to believe it just yet, since all of your life you have been told otherwise, but sooner or later you'll begin to realize it's there and you have it."

"So, you're a witch right?" asked Monica.

"Yep. So is Hermione. Harry, Ron, and Malfoy are wizards."

"Do you really wear funny hats?" Monica asked. She smiled to herself. She was always saying stupid things. She was about to take it back when…

"ME?! Wear THOSE silly things?" Cho scoffed. "I mean, I KNOW they're on the supply list, but I NEVER wear them unless I HAVE to."

And that was how their long discussion began. Monica learned a lot of new things, and Cho got a couple of fashion tips. Anything related to the school or the gang's predicament was left for tomorrow.

Elizabeth came back and told them how to make perfect curls (like the ones that were fashionable in her time), and then shooed them off to bed when it got too late.

They wished each other a good night, and went off to bed.

"Cho?" whispered Monica from her bed.

"Yeah?" came a reply.

"Thanks."

Cho smiled.

And with that, they went to bed.

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In another room of the castle, a lovely portrait told a smiling Headmaster about the first crack in the solid wall built by a life of separation from the truth, separation from reality.

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Ok, that's a good spot to leave it off. And today was the first day of school, can you believe it? anyways, thats off topic, so REVIEW!


	6. Dancing Bananas

**_Disclaimer by Alanna: the only thing we own is the new stuff and characters, the plot, and the fluff in our jeans, oh yeah; DaLuver owns a blade of grass and Drakie. I own, hmmm, a purple watch that tells me I've spent too much time on this disclaimer._**

****

Chapter 5, The Dancing Bananas

The next morning dawned bright and early, too early for some of the gang's taste, but since they had five years to make up for, it was decided that it was probably better than the alternative, which was not sleeping at all. Boys and girls walked into the hallway from their respective dorms, and yawned loudly.

Carlos spoke first. "Good morning, what's up?"

"There's nothing good about it, we have to make up potions today," replied Ron in a tone that managed to sound sleepy and disgruntled at the same time.

"What's wrong with potions?" asked Cesar grumpily.

"Nothing's wrong with potions, what's wrong about the class is the teacher, Professor Snape," Harry pronounced the name as if it were a distasteful piece of slime.

"Okay." replied Yvette with a yawn. She didn't really care what was going on, she just wanted to sleep more.

"Well, we might as well head off to breakfast, we'll need the energy if Snape's teaching you guys two and a half years worth of potions, doing it one lesson at a time was hard enough!" said Hermione.

"2 ½ years? I thought we were doing 5" said Michelle questioningly.

"Well we have two weeks so we're doing half this week and half the next, oh, an by the way, your stuff you'll need for classes is in that storage room there, each pile has one of your names in it, for potions, you'll need the cauldron and the ingredients kit, not to mention the parchment and the quills, and after breakfast and before potions, Mr. Olivander has come to try you all out for wands, you'll need those too," said Hermione.

"Parchment and quills? What archaic civilization do you come from? What's wrong with paper and pencil, and pens too, for that matter?" asked Michelle.

"Well, I've always wondered about that too, but parchment is unlined, so you can write as big or small as you want, that's one advantage. It doesn't really matter though, and what are you guys waiting for, go look at your new stuff!" replied Hermione.

Carlos led the way, still skeptical. He still didn't believe in magic, and there had been nothing to give him the impression that it actually existed.

As the gang walked into the storage room, they saw five different piles of stuff. In each different pile there was some clothes, presumably robes, cloaks, and other things, there were telescopes, parchment, quills, books, cauldrons, ingredients, bags, and surprisingly, in each pile, there was a gleaming broomstick with the words Firebolt gleaming in gold on the sides. Each set of clothes (aka: robes) had a name written on a tag connected to it. They each went over to their pile, and skeptically pulled out random things.

Monica kept looking distractedly at the broomstick. She was torn between to emotions: skeptical and awed. If it really was true that they could fly, it would be so cool to be able to soar around in the sky.

Tonks had reappeared and was watching amusedly as Monica and, surprisingly, the rest of the gang stared at the broomsticks. "Ahh, you like the Firebolts! No surprise there, they're the best there is. Dumbledore seemed to think that you all would be playing for your house teams, there was no uncertainty to his tone, so I assume you will be, once you learn how to play."

"Play? Play what, you guys have sports here? I'm in, how do you try out, how do you play? And what is it, oh yeah you said there was Basketball here, so you play on broomsticks! How cool, will we learn to use them? Do they actually fly? I want to play, please?" this was all said in a rushed and excited tone by Cesar, who loved playing sports.

"Well I, for one, have no interest in playing organized sports. Organized sports create unnecessary pressure on the athletes involved, incite exaggerated rivalry, and are wholly overrated. If you will remember, people in Brazil kill each other over the results of soccer games, and I'm sure the rivalry for this game must be fierce. Not to mention the gigantic amount of pressure posted upon the participating players, especially the stars, and in sports like wrestling, participants sometimes starve themselves to make the weight limit. Not to mention that sports take up valuable time that could be better spent studying. So, no thank you, I, for one, will not be participating, and you can't change my mind!" finished Carlos emphatically.

"Well that was very enlightening and you made some good points, but Dumbledore feels that you need to get into the whole team spirit thing, not to mention the exercise is good for you, so all of you will be participating on your house team. But now is not the time, breakfast is getting cold, so you all better get down there before it goes bad," replied Tonks.

Hermione told them what they would need for Potions, and, with many side-glances at one another, they packed everything in their cauldrons.

As they walked down to breakfast, Carlos tried to figure out how to put on his robes. Harry, Ron, and Hermione didn't notice because they were in front of everyone, Cho giggled silently as she walked next to Monica, Draco smirked from behind the group, and the rest of the gang was just amused by his antics. Finally, Monica let out an exasperated sigh and stopped Carlos in his tracks. She yanked the robe on him and fixed a couple of things.

"Thanks, twerp," said her brother with a smile. She smacked his head. He smiled, and poked her side. When she yelped and jumped he said, "Come on." They ran to catch up with everyone else.

(Yvette, Monica, Michelle, and Cesar had already gotten dressed in their robes, as Hermione, Ron, and Harry had told them how to do it.)

Soon they reached a giant hall with a ceiling of blue spotted with cloudlike white blobs. Staring at the ceiling, Michelle remarked, "What in the world is that on the ceiling, the clouds are MOVING."

"The ceiling is bewitched to look like the sky above. I read it in Hogwarts, a History," said Hermione.

"Uh-huh," said Michelle in a skeptical tone.

They approached the table that was set for them in the middle of the hall; there were teachers at another one. It had ten chairs around it, and when they were all seated, the gang looked around at the empty mugs and bare plates and were about to say something when, like magic, food suddenly appeared. There were pancakes, waffles, and rich, golden syrup. The pitchers were filled with milk and orange juice and water (no everything was not in the same pitcher). They all began to notice their hunger and dug in, remembering that the last time they ate was lunch the day before. Ron had a little trouble with the waffles, unsure of how to eat them, but after they showed him, he ate little else BUT waffles, which were hardly recognizable under all the syrup. Then when they had finished and the plates were cleared, the man the gang had come to recognize as Dumbledore stood and said, "Well, Mr. Ollivander, how nice of you to join us! Students, Mr. Ollivander has come to find you new ones suitable wands. If you would be so kind as to come over here?"

For the first time the Hogwarts gang noticed the presence of the kindly wand maker who had sold them their wands. They smiled at him. Well, everyone but Draco smiled (you didn't expect him to, now did you?).

The gang walked slowly up and saw that behind him there were piles and piles and piles and piles and piles and piles and piles and piles of long, skinny shoebox-like boxes. With some trepidation, they finally reached where he was standing, they stopped, and Mr. Ollivander spoke up, "Well, who's first?" he asked kindly.

When no one stepped up, Dumbledore said, "Well, Carlos, why don't you go first?"

Carlos stepped up to Mr. Olivander. Nobody could tell what he was thinking. Mr. Olivander nodded and began moving through his gigantic piles of boxes, he stopped, picked one, and came back to Carlos, and opened the box. He then pulled out the wand and handed it to Carlos. Hesitatingly, Carlos accepted the wand.

"Well, what are you waiting for, give it a wave, it's 9 inches long made of willow, containing a hair of a unicorn!" said Mr. Olivander excitedly.

Carlos shrugged, and waved the wand. CRASH. A water jug on the table nearest shattered.

Carlos stared at it incredulously. He didn't actually believe that this magic junk was actually real, so he had just been trying to prove these people wrong. What was going on?

"What the…?" began Carlos, protesting.

"I think not." Said Mr. Olivander, and he snatched the wand back. They went through this process several times, and broke a chair, plate, and Dumbledore's hat, among other things before Carlos got a wand that didn't cause harm to his surroundings. His result wand was 10 inches, mahogany, containing a unicorn hair.

Mr. Olivander continued in this fashion until he had worked his way through all of the gang. They had, by this time, done a considerable amount of damage onto the great hall, but Dumbledore looked unconcerned. Michelle had ended up with an 8 inch willow with the phoenix feather core, Monica with a 9 inch rosewood containing a unicorn hair, Cesar with an 11 inch maple with hair from the head of a veela, and Yvette had a 7 inch oak containing a dragon heartstring.

Monica, Michelle, and Carlos were staring incredulously at the wands and everything that had been broken.

"No… way…" asked Monica, speaking for the first time that day. (AN: Not a morning person, if you remember, he he.)

She waved her wand a little and stared intently at a nearby chair. It immediately turned into a pile of dust. She narrowed her eyes. This could not be happening.

Michelle stared at Monica, the wand, and the chair. She waved her own wand in the direction of another chair. It went up in flames.

Both girls just stared.

Carlos finally found his voice. "Prove it." He said firmly.

Dumbledore looked unfazed. "There is no way for me to prove to you that magic truly exists. It is something that you will have to accept on your own terms. Were I to try, you would shoot down every argument and find an excuse to every demonstration I could possibly give you."

Carlos just stared. Monica was the one who replied. "There is no such thing as magic. It just doesn't exist."

"Once again, I will tell you, I cannot prove it to you. You must come to accept it." Replied Dumbledore heavily. "I suggest you all go to potions."

Not looking forward to the experience, based on the Hogwarts gang's opinion of the professor Snape (with the exception of Draco, who, apparently liked Snape), the gang followed the Hogwarts gang down deeper into the castle. Once they all reached the particular dungeon that was Snape's domain, they stepped through the threshold with no little amount of trepidation. When they saw that no one was in the room, they breathed a sigh of relief. They took their seats, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited, and waited. Then, the door opened with a BANG, and a man strode in. He was presumably Snape. He had greasy, long (for a guy) black hair, a long nose, and if you readers need any further details about his description, look in the books.

"Well dunderheads, the Headmaster has informed me that you five are to be brought up to sixth year level. That being said, I think he is overestimating your ability to catch up, but I hope to find some of you are more adept at the delicate art of potion making. Today, we will be making potions, one after the other; the recipes will be on the board. We will start with the basic cauldron safety techniques, and then you will be on your own. Your sponsors will help you with your potions, and we will be starting with the engorgement potion. Begin!" announced Snape. He waved his wand, and suddenly a series of instructions appeared on the blackboard behind him.

"What in the world is a boomslang?" said Yvette curiously, looking at the list of ingredients, in particular, the one that said '1 cup shredded boomslang skin'.

"It's a magical creature, what'd you expect?" replied Ron, and they went back to work.

After receiving the basic safety instructions, they began work on the first potion. After slicing, dicing, and measuring, they began to stir, and stir, and stir. All of a sudden, the cauldron's contents began to swirl in mesmerizing colors.

"OOH PRETTY, that didn't happen when I made the engorgement potion!" said Cho excitedly.

"Yeah, hold on, what's that coming out of the cauldron?" said Harry interestedly.

Carlos was in the background, repeatedly pinching himself, completely unbelieving, after having achieved a loud "OWIE" he gave up, and watched the cauldrons suspiciously.

For emerging from the depths of the cauldrons were … FIVE DANCING BANANAS!? (AN: you see, this is one of DaLuver's FANTABULOUS ideas tee hee, she was EXTREMELY sleep-deprived when she came up with it!)

They immediately began to dance around the classroom/dungeon. Then one by one, they went up to Snape, flailed their peels at him and said, "BOTHER," in a really annoying tone (AN: POTTER PUPPET PALS!), then went to dance in front of the gang members, one in front of each, and went POOF in colored smoke. The smoke in front of Michelle was blue, in front of Monica and Carlos was green, in front of Yvette was yellow, and Cesar's smoke was red. Suddenly, the gang members all felt a weird jolt, and then the sensation was gone.

"Well, that certainly proves that you all have no aptitude for potions, that mixture was completely wrong! You will have to start from the beginning now, so get to it!" said Snape in a disdainful tone.

"Wow, that was really freaky, what just happened?" whispered Yvette.

"Dunno, did you guys feel that weird jolt during the smoke?" asked Monica nervously, her eyes darting toward Snape.

"Yeah, I did," said Michelle.

"Well, I didn't," said Ron, looking at the two of them.

A chorus of yes's and no's went around the room, the gang did, and the Hogwarts Gang didn't.

"Well, I certainly think we should tell Dumbledore about this, he might be able to explain what just happened! After all, we followed the instructions perfectly, and I should know, I've made engorgement potions billions of times for practice!" said Hermione.

But they didn't have time to talk anymore; Snape had turned around and was eyeing them suspiciously. They spent the rest of the morning making the engorgement potion, again, the shrinking potion, and several others.

At lunch, they all entered the great hall with some trepidation, not to mention confusion at what had conspired during Potions. Before they started eating, the gangs went up to Dumbledore (with the exception of Draco, who was sitting lazily at his seat, waiting for lunch). Hermione started talking really fast, "Professor Dumbledore, there you are. We have something to tell you, during potions, something really weird happened." She proceeded to tell him the whole story, with some comments from the others when they felt she forgot something. Finally, they stopped and stared expectantly for Dumbledore's response.

"Well, it seems to me that you five are mentioned in more than one prophecy. The relevant one goes like this:

When the dancing bananas from within the cauldron emerge and dance, they will poof in the colors of the houses and bestow upon the heirs strange and important powers for use, for use unknown.

I am unsure about the nature of the powers you have now gained, after lessons today, please come up to my office, and I will test you to find out. The password is 'sugar quill'; Mr. Potter can show you where to use it." Said Dumbledore, calmly, and with that, turned to his meal, which had just appeared.

They all turned around and saw the giant piles of food. Their eyes glazed over as their stomachs growled since they hadn't eaten anything since breakfast.

Everyone rushed over to the table and began to eat (except Draco, DUH, because he was already there so he got first dibs).

About halfway through dinner, Monica started laughing. Gasping for air, Monica wiped away the tears that came with her extremely intense laughing. Trust me to go into hysterics.

Yvette raised her brow, blinked repeatedly, and slid away from her friend on the bench.

Monica started turning red, and almost fell off her seat.

Everyone stared at her. Cesar put down his chicken leg and asked, "What's up with her?"

"I don't think it's that time of month for her…" replied Yvette with a sort of confused/frightened expression on her face.

Monica immediately stopped laughing and slapped Yvette across the head.

"Hey!" yelled Yvette.

"Do NOT talk about my period like that!" screeched Monica.

All the boys present turned brick red and proceeded in stuffing their faces. That is, all but Draco, who was smirking and staring at them with great interest.

Oh, she's in for it now. He thought.

"Well, it's entirely possible that you could be PMSing," started Yvette.

Monica's eyes turned a weird greenish hue.

"… but I highly doubt it, since you had it about two weeks ago." She finished.

Just as Monica started to slowly stand up, Cho grabbed her arm and pulled her down.

"So, what were you laughing about Monica?" She asked.

Monica immediately began laughing again. "Dancing… bananas…" she said gasping for air.

The rest of the gang immediately understood. Yvette slapped her forehead.

"You're crazy, you know that?" said Cesar, peering over the table.

"Completely insane," said Carlos.

"Thank you," replied Monica, calming down.

"I should have known that was it, you're always going on about them," said Michelle, laughing.

The Hogwarts gang looked at them quizzically, then shrugged and went back to their lunch. Hermione piped up, "well, we have to hurry to our, well, really your next class; I believe you're doing Transfiguration next, and McGonagall doesn't like us to be late."

Signs of acknowledgement went around the Hogwarts gang, and Carlos shrugged, not really caring and still half believing that this was all some big dream. But the rest of the gang was curious. "Who's McGonagall?" asked Monica.

"Professor McGonagall is the head of Gryffindor house, and she's alright. She's fair, if a bit strict." Replied Hermione, shrugging.

"Cool…" said Monica and they all returned to their lunches.

They all finished their PUDDING (AN: LUDGE YAZ ZANZA!!!), then headed off to Transfiguration, led by Harry. They entered a fairly normal looking classroom, for Hogwarts at least, and took their seats. An older looking witch with graying hair, and stately robes walked in (again, for further description, see the movies, or the books). Like Snape, she immediately started speaking, trusting that everyone was paying attention.

"Welcome, students, to Transfiguration," she began, in a crisp Irish tone, "Today you will be studying the first five terms worth of lessons, it'll be a busy afternoon. We will start with a very simple transfiguration, you will transform a match into a needle, Mister Weasley, if you would be so kind as to pass out a match to each pair, and you can get started."

Ron went to collect the matches from Proffessor McGonagall, and passed them out to the pairs (the same as in Potions). They all began to attempt to transfigure it, with varying degrees of success. Michelle got it almost instantly, and Yvette was giving her dirty looks as she struggled to get the match to be anything but a match. Monica was making progress and soon would have it, Cesar considerably less adept than Monica, was still getting further than Yvette. Carlos was sitting there poking his wand at himself, still trying to wake himself up, but when McGonagall told him off sharply for dilly-dallying, he immediately got to work, and in about a minute, succeeded.

"What! How in the world did that happen?" Carlos asked himself, awed in spite of himself.

"You did the spell correctly, DUH!" replied his partner, Cho, "Even I know that much."

"But how is any of this POSSIBLE?" asked Carlos, then he thought better of it, "Oh well, I'll wake up eventually." And with this, he resigned himself to whatever next would happen magical.

Once everyone had succeeded with that, they turned to more and more difficult tasks, till they finally transformed a slug into a tube of paste. Exhausted from the day's work and studies, and with more work waiting for them (both Snape and McGonagall had assigned them essays on their progress so far) they all had dinner, and, remembering their meeting with Dumbledore, the gang followed Harry, Hermione, and Ron to the stone gargoyle (Draco had left heading off somewhere in the dungeons, Cho to fix her nails, which had accidentally been transformed into dragon scales, upon fixing them, the shape had been warped and that's SOOO much more important than the meeting with Dumbledore!).

Harry walked up to the Gargoyle and said very clearly, "Sugar Quill." The Gargoyle slid out of the way, revealing a winding staircase.

Looking at each other, the gang shrugged, and then started silently climbing the steps. At the top of the stairs, there was a large wooden door. Hesitating, Monica gave the door a soft knock, and the door swung open.

"Please, do come in," said Dumbledore. He was sitting behind an old wooden desk, staring at them. "Do sit down, here," He had just conjured up chairs for them all.

"WHAT!" exclaimed Carlos, disbelief written on his face. He immediately collapsed into one and commenced his usual rounds of pinching, poking, and "OWIES!"

"Well, you all know why you're here, so let me get to the point. You five have new and interesting powers; I am going to find out what they are. Please do not be frightened, it will only take a minute," Dumbledore straightened, and with a flick of a wrist, shouted, "ABRA KADABRA!"

Immediately, the gang found themselves bathed in an eerie light. Suddenly the light stopped and they looked at each other in wonder. Carlos was the first to recover, "Abra kadabra? How unoriginal is that? I mean, ABRA KADABRA! This really must be a dream, if all day, we've been hearing these complicated incantations for transfiguring, and the most important spell we've heard is ABRA KADABRA I mean…" Carlos' unbelieving rant was cut short by a pointed look from Dumbledore.

"Well, do you want to hear your powers, or not?" asked Dumbledore patiently, as if Carlos' rant had never happened, or he was completely oblivious to it. When the gang all nodded uncertainly, he started again, "Well, these certainly are unusual. To start. Yvette, furthermore, whenever you sneeze, someone will go 'moo'. Monica, you have been given a rune so rare, none but you know it. It is for the mystical object known as a wooden spoon, used for smacking people. Michelle, from now on, you have the ability to conjure up blue and bronze bubbles, filled with the candy of your choice simply by imagining it inside of a bubble. Carlos, you have the ability to control peoples left socks. Cesar, whenever you cough, chickens will appear. Any questions?"

This seemed so ridiculous to the gang that they just sat there and stared. And stared, and stared. Suddenly, a thought appeared to Michelle to test her newfound abilities, and to the others surprise, blue and bronze bubbles began appearing in front of her, all filled with 100 Grand bars.

"COOL!" said Cesar, grabbing one, the bubble popped, and left him with the chocolate in his hand. He ripped off the wrapper, and began to chow down on it. Others followed; Ron was especially taken, presumably because he'd never seen a 100 Grand bar before. But Carlos, as usual, didn't believe. "I would like an explanation, NOW! That shouldn't even be POSSIBLE," he said to Dumbledore, pointing at the bubbles.

"I have said before, and will say again, nothing I can say to you will change your mind, at least not yet. Think it a dream if you will, but you will come around in the end. Well, what are the rest of you waiting for, test your powers alrea-Mooo, that's more like it!" said Dumbledore, the last comment addressed to the rest of the gang, interrupted by a sneeze, from, guess who.

Monica shrugged, and said, in a testing tone, "SPOONAKA!" immediately, a large wooden spoon appeared in her hand. Gleefully she yelled, "SPOONIE!" and with that she smacked Carlos over the head with it. She and giggled, "I could get used to this!"

"Not funny Monica, and where did you get that spoon anyways?" said Carlos, rubbing his head, and dodging an extremely ruffled looking hen which had just appeared.

"Didn't you hear me, I just said that rune thingy?" asked Monica.

"Part of your power is that no one else may know the rune, so they will not recognize that you said anything, even if you wrote it down, it would be like someone wrote it in invisible ink," said Dumbledore, chuckling at Carlos' half angry, half curious expression. "But that is enough for today, if you would please head back to your rooms, that would be most appreciated."

They headed out, down the stairs, and toward their room/dorm. On the way, in front of the door, Carlos decided to test out his power. Concentrating, he pulled suddenly Monica fell flat on her face. "Hey, what was that for? That hurt!" exclaimed Monica, glaring at her twin furiously.

"THAT was for hitting me with that spoon!" said Carlos, and without saying another word, went into the boys room.

"HIS NAME IS SPOONIE, GET IT RIGHT!" yelled Monica. She giggled and hugged Spoonie.

WOW! THIS TURNED OUT SO INSANE!! YAAAY! :-D LOL. Well, as we said before… well, im not sure if we warned you about our insanity… o well :-D. Now, when I Moo, you must do the following things:

1) REVIEW!!!!

2) READ DaLuver's STORY!!!

3) GO TO THE NEAREST CANDY STORE AND BUY US SOME CHOCOLATE!!!(100 Grand bars are good for Alanna!)

MOO!!! :-P:-D


	7. The Crack Widens

Chapter 6, The Crack Widens

Disclaimer by DaLuver: we only own the insane things that make you think "… what the…?!" LMAO! It's very fun to write this story, and I'm definitely falling in love with the DANCING BANANAS AND SPOONIE!!! YAAAY!!! :-D Happy reading!

****

In the girls room:

****

The only sounds to be heard were the scratch of quills on parchment and the flipping of pages in old books. The girls of the gang were doing their four essays. Snape had assigned three three-foot-long ones, and McGonagall had assigned one five-foot-long one. They had gotten through the first two from Snape together, but the third one was like a creative thinking essay, so they would have to each do their own.

"… was it boomslang or shrivelfang…?" Monica muttered distractedly. "Oh, this is impossible! I'm taking a break!"

Hermione looked up from her book. "It's okay Monica, just take a short break and calm down a bit."

"I'm going for a walk." Monica sighed as she got up. "Official invite: anyone want to join me?"

Hermione shook her head and went back to reading.

Cho looked up from her muggle magazine. "I thought you'd never ask. Come on."

Monica smiled. "Well, anyone else?"

Michelle continued writing. "No thanks but have fun."

"Yvette?" Monica and Cho glanced at the forlorn girl who was currently hunched over her parchment.

"I can't!" She showed them the progress she had made in half an hour.

"Three sentences…?" Monica hugged her. "Just calm down, you can do it."

Yvette groaned and put her head in her hands.

"Well, we'll be back later!" Said Cho brightly.

They walked through the castle for about fifteen minutes talking about their childhoods. It was amazing how much in common they had.

"…Oh, I like to sing too!" exclaimed Cho.

"It's my favorite thing in the world."

Cho smiled. "Oh, come on then!"

"Can I look yet?" asked Monica.

"No."

"How about now?"

"No."

"Now?"

"No. No. No! Now hush!"

They were outside. Monica had felt the rush of the cold night air as Cho opened a door. They walked for about ten more minutes, and just when Monica was about to infuriate Cho a bit more, Cho uncovered her eyes.

"Now you can." She laughed at the shock on Monica's face.

"This is the lake. That's the giant squid right there." She pointed at a large tentacle that was floating lazily on the water.

They were on a rock overhang opposite of the castle. "It's beautiful."

"Well, sing something."

"What?!"

"Just sing something." Said Cho with an amused smile on her face.

We were strangers... She whispered into the night air. "It… echoes!" 

Cho laughed. "I come here when I want to sing, when I want to get away from the world."

"Cho, I have a feeling that we're going to be great friends."

They both laughed and sang for about half an hour more at the top of their lungs. One song that they both seemed to like was a song that Cho had taught Monica.

_His eyes are as green as a fresh pickled toad,_

_His hair is as dark as a blackboard._

_I wish he was mine, he's really divine,_

_The hero who conquered the dark lord.___

They walked back to the castle laughing.

"Well, hello dears," greeted a familiar portrait.

"Hello, Elizabeth." They chorused, and broke down laughing again.

She smiled. "Well, you'd best get back and finish all your work. I'll see you both later, I have to go meet with the headmaster."

Monica sighed gustily and they trooped back up the stairs.

Meanwhile, back in the girls room, Michelle, Yvette, and Hermione were finishing work on their essays. Well, Michelle and Hermione were finishing up, anyways. Yvette sat in complete concentration at the desk in the corner, chewing on the end of her quill. She was still working on the beginning of the third essay, while Michelle and Hermione were halfway through the fourth. Hermione looked up.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you, Yvette." Hermione's recommendation broke the studious silence of scratching quills.

Startled, Yvette looked up. "What?"

"Chew on the quill, they have a nasty habit of exploding in your mouth. Unless of course you like having black, feathery teeth, in that case go right ahead," Hermione replied, shrugging.

"Thanks. I just can't get through this stupid essay!" said Yvette, brow narrowed in concentration.

"Just keep going, it'll get easier." Michelle told her, "And the next one's no sweat, I just finished it."

"You know what? Shut up," said a disgruntled Yvette.

"You finished it too?" asked Hermione, "Because I just did."

"Really? Cool," replied Michelle.

"Hey, you like books, right? Want to go to the library here? It's huge!" asked Hermione, "I have just the book you could read, Harry and Ron never bothered to read it, but you might like to, it's called Hogwarts, A History."

"Cool, where is it?" asked Michelle.

"Wherever it is, just go there, so I can work in peace, unless one of you would be willing to help me with this?" Yvette said the last part hopefully, but by then, the two girls were already out the door, and walking towards the library.

"So, how big is this library?" Michelle asked Hermione, amiably as they walked.

"Huge, it's great!" Hermione replied and she smiled, "This is going to be fun."

"Sure is, what kind of books does a magical school have in its library anyways?" Michelle was curious.

"All sorts, you'll see, stuff on magical creatures, spells, jinxes, and all of these things gone wrong. There are also biographies and extra schoolbooks. There is also a restricted section that you don't want to go in, unless of course you have a specific book to get, the books there tend to be, well, unpleasant." Hermione replied.

"Unpleasant? You mean, as in violent or graphic or something?" Michelle queried, confused a bit.

"Some, but most of the books there have been bewitched to scream or bite or brainwash or something equally unpleasant. But that's not important. You rarely, if ever, even have to think about the restricted section. You can see the rest of the books for yourself, we're there."

They had just stopped in front of a large wooden double door. Hermione opened one, and gestured Michelle to enter. She stopped cold three steps in. "WOW, that's a lot of books!"

Hermione laughed and closed the door behind her. "Yup, it's big alright. Come on, I'll show you around."

They spent the next hour looking at the books. Hermione showed Michelle how to check out Hogwarts, A History and introduced her to Madame Pince, the librarian. They returned to the dormitory each carrying a large book. Hermione had gotten a self-defense book called Curses, and How to Counter Them.

On their way back, Michelle laughed and said, "That was fun. Monica and Carlos will love that place when they get to it, they both like reading just as much as I do, I can't wait to see their faces when they see it."

"Really? Well, I think that we might have to soon to research things, some of the essays and assignments we'll get will be difficult to do without going there." Hermione told Michelle. Soon they were outside their dormitories door. They opened it and saw, to their amusement, Yvette, Monica, and Cho working on the last essay. As they walked in, Monica gave a shout and exclaimed, "FINALLY, I'm DONE!"

"Me too," said Cho.

Yvette gave them both dirty looks, and sighed. "I'm the only person here who didn't go anywhere and I'm the person the furthest behind. What gives?"

"Don't worry about it, maybe tomorrow, you and Ron should do the work together, he also tends to be slower at it." Hermione told Yvette.

"Ok, what do we have tomorrow?" Yvette asked, in a curious and resigned tone.

"I think Care Of Magical Creatures, and Herbology. Dumbledore is making all of you take that one. By the way, have you all chosen the other classes you want to take? Arithmancy, Divination, or Study of Ancient Runes?"

This query was met by blank faces from the gang members present. "HUH, what was that again?" Yvette stared at Hermione, and then she started again, "Can we pick none? I really don't want extra work."

Hermione laughed and answered, "No, you have to pick at least one, but if you don't want the work, pick Divination, there's practically no work involved. The work there is easy, you really don't have to work that hard on it, Harry and Ron just made stuff up and got full marks. The teacher is a real fraud. Arithmancy, my personal favorite class, is more complicated, and is a lot like math. There are lots of runes and charts and such. Study of Ancient Runes is more of the same, and is basically all about runes. There are other classes you could pick, but Dumbledore feels these are the classes that would benefit you the most."

"Ok, well, when do we need to pick the classes, right now? Because it's been a long day and I have a feeling tomorrow will be more of the same," Michelle gave a loud yawn.

"I don't know when you have to pick, but its going to be soon, but you're right, we probably should turn in, so good night everyone." Hermione replied, and they all changed into their pajamas and fell into bed.

Meanwhile, in the boys' room:

After the boys (In this case, 'the boys' means Carlos and Draco) finished with their essays, Harry and Ron introduced Cesar into the volatile world of exploding snap. They started with simple card games that have breached the oceans, aka, go fish. Then they moved on to building card towers that would blow up periodically. By the time they finished, all of their eyebrows were badly singed, and they reduced their need for a haircut in the near future (yes, even Harry had).

Carlos and Draco, however, were involved in slightly more mature pastimes: VIDEO GAMES! Draco had done a spell to reduce magical interferences in muggle electronics, and they were playing the very mature game of Super Mario Brothers 3 on Cesar's game boy. Draco had deemed it preferable to actually interact with the new arrivals to spending yet more time in the corner desk sulking. Well, what did you expect?

A/N: this is the end of the pre-written chappies, tho Im almost done with the next, so the update schedule will be once a week, for now, postings will be every friday, but this is tentative, if i finish this next one soon, and i just can't wait, it'll be on sooner, we'll see, and don't forget, REVIEW


	8. Some Catching up to do

Disclaimer by Alanna: I think you all have enough of an imagination to GUESS what goes here, if not, we own nothing that is someone else's (Mainly, J.K. Rowling/Time Warner)

Chapter 7

The next day started out like the day before, with the disgruntled teens forcing themselves out of bed at a disgusting hour. In the girls' room, four semi-awake girls stood above Monica's bed, poking and prodding her.

"Come on, lazy, rise and shine, hey that hurts!" said Yvette in a disgustingly cheery tone, that is, before she received a whack from Spoonie, surprisingly hard coming from a person who refused to move.

"Five more minutes?" Monica asked groggily, already asleep again.

"Ugh, well, this won't work, we have to be in the Great Hall for breakfast in a half hour, we'll never get her up by then!" Hermione said, annoyed.

"Time for plan B! Everybody's dressed, right?" Michelle asked, she confirmed that everyone, except of course, Monica, was wearing their robes, she disappeared, and returned shortly with Carlos in tow. The rest of the boys followed, to watch the show, "Alright, do your stuff!"

"Hehe, this will be fun!" Carlos began concentrating. Monica was slowly being pulled out of bed by her left sock.

"Argh, Noooo" Monica was holding on to the bedposts for dear life, and then she gave up pulled out Spoonie again. Monica let go of the bedposts and began whacking everyone in sight saying, "I WANNA SLEEEEEEEEEP!"

Fifteen minutes and several bruises later, every one was ready to go, even Monica. They were all dressed in their school robes, and cloaks, with dragon hide gloves hanging at their sides, because their classes that day were outside. With them, they carried their wands and schoolbooks for Herbology and Care of Magical Creatures.

When they got to the great hall, they sat down and began to eat the food that magically appeared before them. Halfway through breakfast, several large owls swooped into the hall carrying big bulky packages and a few letters. They seemed to be headed in towards the table that the gangs were sitting at.

"What are they doing?" asked Yvette, staring.

"Delivering mail, of course, it looks like your parents have sent you all your stuff, and I see a couple letters, you should open those first, I think," explained Ron.

"Really?" asked Yvette, but she didn't have time to continue querying Ron, because the owls had arrived on the table and were bustling to be the first to have their burdens unloaded.

"Yeah, untie the cords attaching the packages or letters and the owls will leave, hey Monica, it looks like this ones for you, or Carlos," said Harry, handing Monica the letter he had gotten off of a small tawny.

"Thanks, hey it's from my parents!" said Monica, excitedly, she tore open the envelope, and began to read, sure that they would finally get some more answers.

_Dear Monica and Carlos,_

_We hope your having fun at Hogwarts, sorry we didn't tell you sooner. We sent all the stuff you'll need, hope we got everything._

_ Love,_

_ Mom and Dad_

Monica stared in disbelief at the letter, and even turned it over to make sure that that was all. "Sorry we didn't tell you sooner? We hope you're having fun? What kind of stupid letter is that?" She threw the letter aside, and turned toward the nearest package, which happened to be addressed to her. "Well, I hope they remembered to pack my Walkman," she said, disgruntled.

As it turned out, they had packed her Walkman and CDs, and Carlos' game boy (games too) and snake supplies. Michelle's books (some of them) were in hers, Cesar got more of his video game gear, and Yvette's had her art set. All of the packages contained the recipient's clothes, accessories, and personal hygiene items, as well as a few odds and ends.

Sighing, they headed to the dormitories to put their stuff away, and then headed off to Care of Magical Creatures.

"So, what is this class all about, I mean, I know it's about Magical creatures, and all that, but what do we do in that class, is the teacher any good?" asked Monica, who had thoroughly woken up by then, and was curious.

"The teacher is an oaf with an obsession with monsters and dangerous creatures, he's also a half-giant, the great big lug," said Draco in his usual drawl.

"No he's not Malfoy, Hagrid's ok, Monica, he does like dangerous creatures, but most of them you don't see in class," said Harry, "He can actually be a very good teacher when he's on a roll, and he definitely has a way with magical creatures, he's also good outside of class, he's the one who told me I had magic."

"Ok…" said Monica, "I guess we'll just have to find out for ourselves, anyways we're almos-Moo. Bless you." This last part was addressed to, well, I think you know.

The Hogwarts gang led the gang to a log cabin, where a giant man with long, shaggy brown hair stood waiting (Again, for further descriptive adjectives, you know where to look). Next to him stood a cage with the bars facing away from the gangs.

Once they all were there, the man began to speak, "Hullo, I'm Professor Hagrid, I'm yer teacher fer Care o' Magical creatures. Since there's only been 'bout 3 yers o lessons fer six yers, we're going to do them all today. We'd best be getting started though, so gather 'round for the firs' un. This here's a flobberworm," he said, indicating a rather uninteresting grayish worm thingy.

He then proceeded to tell them everything they would ever want to know about flobberworms, nifflers, bowtruckles, unicorns, hippogriffs, fire salamanders, thestrals, crups, kneazles, and other bizarre and interesting (or not interesting as far as the flobberworms go) creatures. Cesar looked truly enthralled by all of this, and was probably the only one truly enjoying the lesson, except for maybe Yvette. Draco looked like he had dirt under his nose or something, and he and Carlos were playing gameboy advanced where Hagrid couldn't see them. Cho looked extremely bored and was filing her nails somewhere in the background, and everyone else was paying polite attention to Hagrid and his menagerie. At the end of the lesson, they all trooped back up to the castle for lunch.

"That was really interesting, don't you think?" said Cesar excitedly.

"It was ok," said Monica, "But I'm definitely looking forward to lunch, what is it?"

"How should I know, but its probably going to be good, let's go!" Ron urged everyone to hurry up, and everyone could hear his stomach rumbling loudly.

They all sped up to a faster slow shuffle, and soon they got to the Great Hall.

"There aren't going to be any more surprises during lunch, are there?" asked Michelle, curiously, as they went through the door.

"What you mean like mail in breakfast? I don't think so," said Hermione, and she was right.

After an uneventful lunch, they headed back outside for Herbology. They met the teacher, Professor Sprout, and after hearing a similar speech to the one they had heard before in all there other classes, began to learn about magical plants, and how to take care of them and how to use them, if applicable. They covered flitterblooms, mandrakes, creeping vines, devil's snare, and other interesting plants. The levels of attention was at about the same levels as they were in Care of Magical Creatures, except that since Draco, Carlos, and Cho actually had to do the work, they had to feign their interest, and work animatedly when Professor Sprout was watching, and fool around when she wasn't. Cesar, however, looked like Christmas had come early, and was, for once, not talking about video games, although something in the greenhouse seemed to have triggered an allergy, and there were, by the end of the lesson, several large chickens sampling some of the seeds that made it to the floor. That was probably not a good idea, because after the gang had finished and were walking out of the greenhouses, they saw some of Cesar's chickens had turned blue and yellow with green stripes. Laughing, they headed out on the lawn toward the castle in the steadily darkening light.

"That was fun! I really enjoyed both of those lessons, all they all like that?" asked Cesar, and although he had not completely accepted that Hogwarts and its inhabitants were real, he seemed to be determined to enjoy every minute of this fantastic dream that they all seemed to be having.

"No, most happen to be A HECK OF A LOT MORE INTERESTING! I was so bored, I can't wait for a REAL class to be introduced here at Hogwarts, like fabric care, or history of polka dots or something," said Cho in a dreamlike voice, "or better yet, chorus!"

"Well, I'm not so sure about the polka dots class, but chorus I could get used to!" said Monica in a thoughtful tone, but she shrugged and they all kept walking, and soon they got to the great hall, just in time for dinner.

When they walked into the great hall, the Hogwarts gang noticed an extra seat at the teacher's table. "Look at that," whispered Ron pointing, "D'you reckon the new Defense against the Dark Arts teacher is finally showing up?" he asked interestedly.

"Maybe," answered Harry excitedly, "I hope they brought back Moody or Lupin!"

"Who are they, and why is there a new teacher and two old ones, I thought the teachers here were stuck for life or something," asked Yvette, more than a little bewildered.

"Actually, we've had five, a different one each year, and they have horrible luck. One died, one's memory was lost, one was a werewolf, one was locked in his own trunk for most of the school year, and one was attacked by centaurs. The one attacked by the centaurs was the worst, you don't need to make up anything from her class, but I'll teach you the stuff you need to know," said Harry, but he was interrupted by a voice coming into the great hall.

"I definitely hope I have better luck than that!" exclaimed a female voice from behind them. They all swiveled around where they stood.

A witch of about average height in bright robes looked back at them, her piercing onyx eyes barely visible from underneath her long brown hair, and what looked like purple tips. She was smiling, "Hello, My name is Professor Alianne Aspin, I'm going to be your new DADA teacher this year, and you have my class tomorrow."

The gangs were unsure of what to do and were idly standing there, some staring, some not, when Professor Aspin spoke up again, "Well, I suppose we'll get to introductions tomorrow, first thing, don't forget your textbooks!" she said brightly, and with that, she was gone, and when they turned around, she was sitting at the teacher's table, conversing animatedly with Professor Sprout.

"Wow, she's fast," said Harry, amazed, "I hope she teaches us how to do that!"

"And she's definitely no Umbridge!" added Ron happily.

"Umbridge?" asked Michelle, curiously.

"The teacher last year, she was a pain, kind of like poisoned honey, only in pink," replied Hermione, and they all sat down at the table.

"Ok, so we have her tomorrow, what else do we have?" asked Monica, in a resigned tone.

"Astronomy, but that's at night, so in the afternoon, we have a Quidditch lesson for you all," said Harry, but there was no more time for talk, because the food had just appeared and they all remembered how famished they all were, after the days work.

After dinner, they all trod back to the dorms to finish the written work assigned that day. No essays, but several drawings of magical creatures to be labeled with the correct body part name, and a research project on the native magical plants.

"Who invented homework anyways, what good does it do?" Yvette asked Ron several hours in. All of the others had finished relatively quickly after a trip to the library, and were playing a rather loud game of exploding snap in the other room.

"Beats me, I've been trying to figure out what gets in to teachers heads when they assign this garbage," said Ron, throwing his picture of a hippogriff down.

"Tell me about it, but its not like anyone else cares, they're finished in ten minutes, then they go do something loud and/or fun. How did you survive five years of this homework madness?" asked Yvette, plainly looking for a conversation to distract her from the work they were doing.

"A lot of fakery and Hermione's correction methods," replied Ron with a smile.

"Hermione's correction methods? What are those?" queried Yvette, keen to know the secret to his success.

"Very simple, I do a crummy job, and she fixes it so it actually has to do with what we're working on," answered Ron, his eyes twinkling.

"Ahh, do you think she'll do that now?" questioned Yvette, hopefully.

"Nah, she thinks I should already know this stuff, and should be able to help you to since technically I am supposed to have already done it," he told her with a shrug.

"Ah well, I could hope," said Yvette with a sigh, and they went on with their work.

The next day, they all got up without complaint, yes, even Monica, because they were all eager to get to Defense Against the Dark arts, which will hereby be referred to as DADA. They all got dressed in record time and went to breakfast armed with their books and wands, ready for the start of the day, for once.

Breakfast was an uneventful affair, except for the delivery of Ron's extra socks. Normally, this was not going to be something that the gang noted, but the owl missed Ron entirely, and hit the pitcher of lemonade with a thud, knocking it over, and soaking Yvette in cold liquid. "Errol!" admonished Ron, and he stood to take the connected package, which contained some socks, and some new robes. "I'm so sorry, Yvette, Errol's a little, uh, suicidal I thinks the word." He handed her some napkins.

"It's ok, except for the fact that I'm we- we-, ACHOO. Wet."

Nearby, Professor Snape let out a rather loud "Moo," and the gangs could hardly restrain their laughter.

"Bless you, and that was priceless," sniggered Ron, as they all gathered up their things and left the great hall.

As they entered the DADA classroom, they noticed the desks were arranged to be surrounding a central area. Shrugging at the slight change in seating, the Hogwarts gang sat down, the gang of course didn't know the difference. When they all were seated, Professor Aspin walked in, and they were silent.

"Well, hello class! Today we're doing a review of the first two and a half years, technically. In fact, I will cover anything of importance from the first three, since the second year was rather pointless, and your first can be covered with a little bookwork. So let's start with the emphasis Professor Lupin had in third year on dark creatures." She proceeded to explain to the gang all about dark magical creatures, and by the end of the lesson, even Draco looked like he had been interested and exited about the lesson, even though he had already learned most of it before. Harry noticed that her teaching style was a lot like Lupin's, although the fact that she taught them the same things might have had something to do with it.

Before they knew it, the gangs were finished with the lesson, and headed off to lunch. After lunch, they had a couple hours before their Quidditch lesson, so the gangs decided to finish their DADA work. Like all the other professors, Professor Aspin had given them several assignments, but all of them were basic, and could easily be done with only cursory glances at the textbooks she had provided for their use, although the gang noticed that Harry, as soon as he finished the work assigned, immersed himself in one, and only stopped when Michelle jerked him out of it and shook him by the shoulder.

"Couldn't you just have told me it was time to go to practice?" asked Harry, apparently peeved at having been interrupted.

"I did, quite loudly in fact, and tapped you on the shoulder first, you weren't responding, O Brilliant One," replied Michelle, in an amused tone. Harry grumbled a bit, and his annoyed mood stopped when he saw the bubbles appearing, full of chocolate frogs and 100 grand bars.

"Cool," said Harry, in spite of himself, and he helped himself to a chocolate frog. The other gang members also offered thanks as they enjoyed the spoils of dancing banana powers.

The gangs swung by the dorms to pick up their brooms on the way to the pitch, and soon they were there. The gang members were rather apprehensive about the concept of flying, and Monica felt like the butterflies in her stomach held a meeting and decided to take up bezerk flying. "So, what exactly do we do in Quidditch? Fly around and throw a ball to the other person?" asked Monica, nervousness showing.

"Kind of, but there's more to it than that, and four balls for one. There are seven players on a team, three chasers, two beaters, a keeper, and a seeker. The chasers and keeper deal with the quaffle, which is the ball you throw around. The chasers throw it around and try to get it through one of the opponent's three goal hoops. The keeper defends the team's goal hoops and tries to keep the opposing chasers from scoring a goal. If the chasers get the quaffle through the other hoop, they win ten points for the team. Then there are the two beaters, who deal with the two bludgers. Bludgers are these heavy black balls that zoom around trying to knock people off of their brooms. It's the beater's job to keep them away from their team's players, and swat them toward the other team's players. Then there's the seeker, who deals with the last ball called the golden snitch. The golden snitch is this walnut sized ball that flies around, and is near impossible to see. The seeker's job is to find the snitch and catch it. If they do, they get 150 points for their team, and end the game. The team whose seeker catches the snitch nearly always wins, although there are a few exceptions. That's about it, any questions?" finished Ron, animatedly.

The gang stared, and Ron had to explain some of the finer points of the game to them before they understood exactly what the different positions where supposed to do. By then, they were at the pitch, and ready to start.

They were greeted by a witch with short, spiked gray hair, wearing black and white striped robes. "Good day class, I'm Madame Hooch, and it's time to teach you about Quidditch and flying in general. Put your brooms down, and say 'up'"

The gangs obeyed, and both were rewarded by their brooms springing up into their hands. Looking pleased with themselves, the gang mounted the brooms according to Mme Hooch's explicit instructions. The Hogwarts gang looked oddly at the gang, remembering their own first experiences with broom mounting, then shrugged, not wanting to mention it then. They spent the rest of the lesson first in basic flying and controlling. When all of the gang proved to be naturally adept at the basic controlling of their brooms, they started with the specialized quidditch practice, trying to decide what positions the gang would be best at. They soon found that Michelle and Monica were natural keepers, and that Yvette was an adept keeper. Cesar proved to be a capable beater, and Carlos seemed to be an all a rounder, although his chasing skills seemed most prominent. At the end of the practice, tired and worn, but thoroughly invigorated by the airborne sport, that conversation about it carried on well past dinner, and into their astronomy lesson, which they conducted in hushed tones as they looked through their telescopes at the stars, and listened to Professor Sinastra explain which stars were which, and point out the various constellations and star quadrants in the North Tower.

The next day found the gangs in Charms and History of Magic. The latter, as the gang found out was extremely boring, so, naturally, Carlos fell in love with the class, and for the first time, Michelle and Hermione were not the first ones to finish with their homework, an exceedingly dull essay, three feet long, about goblin and troll revolutions, although Michelle did beat him at charms, because she had been adept enough at the charms not to have been given extra practice work, and Carlos, well, had not. They had, however, all finished their homework faster than usual and even Yvette and Ron had enough time afterwards to play a little quidditch, as soon as they were done, they headed out to the pitch. As they mounted their brooms, Michelle noticed that Hermione wasn't getting on hers, in fact, she hadn't brought one.

"Why don't you have a broom?"

"Oh, I don't play quidditch, I'm really more of a spectator," Hermione replied as the others mounted, and she started to head over to a bench on the side of the stadium.

"Why not?" asked Michelle and Hermione stopped and turned around.

"Oh, I can't fly, if you want though I can keep score if you want to form teams,"

"Why, didn't you learn how? Wh- Why wouldn't you decide to play?" asked Cesar, dumfounded that someone would find out about the airborne sport, then not want to play it, at least in practice.

"Oh, well, it's just not for me. Do you need me to keep score though?" was the polite reply, and they could all see Hermione had brought a book, a sheet of parchment and a quill along with her, instead of a broom.

"Nah, we're just going to toss the quaffle around, feel free to go back and get your broom anytime though," said Michelle and with that they all kicked off the ground, and divided themselves up in to teams, excluding beaters and seekers, and Carlos acted as the referee. They all returned to the dorms exuberant, even Hermione, ready for the next day's round of classes.

The rest of the week passed quickly, and to the gang, it felt like they went to sleep on Saturday night, and woke up the next Saturday before the Sorting. They had gone to dreamland Wednesday night, but even that seemed a blur, and Hat had seemed quite distracted. Their heads were bursting with their newly acquired knowledge, but they were still apprehensive to see how they stacked up against their soon to be classmates, not to mention a little worried about their sorting. All too soon, the rest of the school arrived and the gang was with the first years, following Professor McGonagall to the Great Hall.

_A/N: Sorry this took so long to get updated, but there were slight delays with no less than three hurricanes, and a slow betaCough cough MONIKKA cough cough. Plus it was taking me a lot longer to write than I thought, but I tried to make the chapter long. Hope you liked! And don't forget to review!_


	9. Back to Dreamland

Yada yada yada, disclaimer mibober- we own nothing that belongs to someone else, that is copyrighted, or is an official trademark. I DO own …well, something.

A/N: This is the new chapter, hope you like, and I'll try to write the next one as soon as possible. But for the meantime, enjoy!

Chapter 8- Back to Dreamland

"Why are we surrounded by MIDGETS?"

"Monica, that's not nice, you were that short once, and you're not so tall now either" said Michelle, amusedly.

"Well, u-um… that's not the point, they're still midgets, and you're just as tall as I am," replied Monica, in an annoyed tone, but she could not keep out the bit of anxiety flying around in the pit of her stomach. And for good reason, the gang was standing outside of the Great Hall amongst the herd of milling, nervous new first year students waiting to be sorted.

"Why don't they just start the stupid sorting already, I can't stand it!" vented Carlos in frustration.

"I hope we all get in the same house," said Yvette, nervously, "Because it would be ve-"

But just as she started to say something else, Professor McGonagall stepped in front of them, and said, in a clipped voice, "It is now time for you to be sorted into houses. There are four houses, Ravenclaw, Slytherin, Hufflepuff and Gryffindor; all are noble with noble histories. These houses will be like your home away from home; you will eat with your house, sleep in house dormitories, and take classes with members of your house. Any achievements you make will earn your house points, any misdemeanors will lose your house points, and the house with the most points at the end of the year will win the Inter-House Championship, good luck to all of you, follow me."

The gang followed the professor in, and were acutely aware of exactly how much taller they were than the first years, and how ridiculous they must look to the rest of the students present. Cesar was especially aware, since he was the tallest one there, including Professor McGonagall. He tried to say something to his friends, but found he had an extremely scratchy throat, and a new worry took root in his mind, _I will NOT cough! _But at the thought of the rampant chickens that it would cause, he had to snort.

"What's so funny?" asked Yvette, eager for a distraction. Cesar shared with the gang his thought, and, after a little muffled chuckling, the gang was better for it, they were beginning to feel a little calmer.

Then they saw that they were headed towards a stool, and a familiar looking hat. But before any of the gang could comment, the milling mob had halted, and was looking expectantly at it.

Then, they weren't there, they were in dreamland, and Hat was in front of them.

"Whaa?" said Monica, and she was understandably startled. They were definitely not expecting to go to dreamland at the sorting ceremony, and then she realized something.

"You're that hat down there! The one we were looking at before you brought us up here! Hold on, why are you a ha… I get it! Hat as in you're actually a hat! Whoa, you're a hat, why didn't you tell us before?"

Hat looked confused, "I believed it was obvious, I mean to say, who in their rightful mind would tell you to call them Hat? Besides, it's not really that I'm a hat, it's that the hat is me, if you follow what I'm saying."

"I don't," stated Yvette flatly, and Hat chuckled.

"That's not important anyways, so long as you get the point that the hat is me, in the real world. I can still talk to you or anyone as the hat, but not as you see me here."

"I think I get it…" said Yvette uncertainly, but Hat had already moved on.

"The reason I called you here was to tell you some about the houses. I usually tell new students through the opening song they're listening to right now, while you're talking to me, but I thought that you five deserved more than the very cursory description that I usually give."

"I forgot, we're probably collapsed all over the Great Hall floor right now, ughh, how embarrassing, Draco's going to have a field day with this one," said Monica, shuddering at the thought.

"Au contraire, this time, I took special care to make sure that you remained standing, and the rest of the school will be listening to my annual song, so nothing will seem out of the ordinary."

"If you say so," was the doubtful reply.

"But that is not what I brought you here to tell you. To start, you know the names of the four houses, Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. These were started by the founders of the school, Rowena, Godric, Helga, and Salazar respectively. They started the school working together in harmony to teach the students, but they ran into problems. One of the major ones was the issue of whom to teach, Salazar Slytherin wanted to teach only those of pure magical blood who were cunning and quick of wit. Godric Gryffindor wanted to take only the brave and courageous, Rowena Ravenclaw wanted to educate only the bright, wise, and intelligent, and Helga wanted to take them all. It worked out for a while, with the respective heads taking the students they wanted, but they created me to choose after they were gone to which house a student should go. After this, Godric and Salazar had a, how shall we say, 'falling out' and Salazar left the school, but his house remained, as well as another legacy, for another time, perhaps Harry will tell you about it. And that's about it, and that's what my song usually sings about. I take all year to compose those things you know. But anyways, last year I took the opportunity to preach inter-house unity, for the houses are usually bitter rivals, at least when it comes to house points and athletics. This year I also wanted to preach about it, but I didn't want you to miss out. I don't have to tell you that if (when) you get sorted into different houses to still be friends, I'm sure it would take much more than that to separate a group like you."

The gang had been listening attentively, and stared at him expectantly. He chuckled, but soon became serious.

"I must confess, I didn't call you here to tell you about your heritage as much as something else…" he paused, "Have you heard about Voldemort?" at their blank faces, he resumed, " I can see not. Well, in a nutshell, Voldemort is known to many as You-Know-Who, or He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named because of the horrendous deeds he has committed. He turned to the dark side, and is overall evil, cruel, and antagonistic. He had been in as near a death state as you get from trying to kill Harry, after killing his parents. But, just recently he has returned, at great personal expense to Harry and his friends, someday soon they will explain what I'm leaving out. The point is: he's back. He's after Harry, and if he finds out about you five, I'm not sure what he'll do. He's renowned for his intense dislike of "mudbloods," an extremely derisive name for witches or wizards with muggle parents. You five, however, are "pure bloods" with magical bloodlines that can be traced back to the founders. But he doesn't know that, at least not yet, and so to make sure he doesn't find out, I will ask you to do one thing, and do not forget. DO NOT-"

But he was cut off, and the gang realized they were returning to the real world. As dream world began to fade, they heard Hat mutter, "Bags."

**_A/N: What do you think? I know this is a kind of short chapter, but I'll try to make the next one longer, and please, please, please review! Oh yeah, thanks go out to DaLuver for lots of help on the chapter, ludge ya!_**


	10. The Sorting, and More Creevys?

Disclaimer: hmm, lets see, I am JK Rowling, and I own EVERYTHING, MHWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. Hehe, I wish… Seriously, I own…the plot and new characters, THAT'S IT

Chapter 9: The Sorting, and …More Creevys?

When the gangs came back to themselves, they realized the ceremony itself was about to begin. Hat had finished his song, and Professor McGonagall was unrolling a scroll, and started to call out a litany of names.

"Aitman, Marie." A nervous looking first year shyly walked up to the stool, sat, and put Hat on.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" cried Hat, and the first year went to sit at her new house's table.

"Bark, Alan." A dark looking boy went to the stool.

"SLYTHERIN!"

Creevy, Eddie." A mousy looking shrimp went and fell over the stool to put the hat on, but finally was seated at the Gryffindor table. Michelle could see that Harry had a resigned look on his face, as the youngster was greeted enthusiastically, perhaps too enthusiastically, by two boys who looked like they were his older brothers, although the tallest of the three was easily shorter than Yvette.

* * *

Harry was observing the sorting ceremony with interest when all of a sudden a sear of pain flashed in his scar. He suddenly remembered the previous year when his scar had hurt quite frequently, and that since, he hadn't noticed it doing so. While he was thinking this, he had been suddenly transported to an elegant, candlelit room. The room was not in Hogwarts, that Harry could tell instantly. He was speaking to a hooded figure, and he was bowing in a subservient manner.

"As you can see master, everything is proceeding as planned, we're only a short way from accomplishing that particular goal," said a voice Harry recognized as Peter Petigrew, also known as Wormtail.

"Excellent. I knew you wouldn't fail me again in that matter, now would you Wormtail," said Harry in a snakelike voice, while stroking a rather large snake, and he continued, "And as for the other matter?"

Wormtail trembled at this, and seemed to clutch at one of his arms as he spoke, "O-Our

progress in this m-matter is l-limited master, i-i-it is very well g-guarded…" He broke off and cowered as Harry contemplated Wormtail's words.

"As I suspected, you have failed me yet again Wormtail, maybe I should teach you a little lesson about what it means to fail Lord Voldemort." Harry fingered his wand and before leveling it at Wormtail and shouting "_Crucio_." Wormtail shrieked and fell, helplessly convulsing, writhing as pain shot through his body.

"Master…, Master NO-" his words gave way to a horrible scream, the tortured sound echoing off the high walls. Harry watched with a cold distaste, surveying Wormtail's pitiful form. In one resigned movement, Harry lifted his wand, and Wormtail lay still, panting heavily.

"Have you learned your lesson, Wormtail?" Harry asked the slumped figure in front of him.

"Yes master, of course master," panted Wormtail in a sniveling voice

"And will you do better next time?"

"Yes, of course master,"

"Very well, you may go Wormtail," Harry said in a bored, if slightly sneering tone.

"Thank you master," said Wormtail in a relieved voice.

"And remember, do not fail me again, Wormtail"

"Yes master, I won't forget master," said Wormtail, and the scene faded in Harry's mind.

* * *

Harry awoke with a start, and was slightly surprised to find himself not in the hospital wing, or else screaming on the floor in pain. True his scar wasn't exactly feeling fine, but it was pleasantly surprising to find the absence of even the milder pain he'd had before his vision. He also realized that not only was he not in pain, but no one else seemed to notice his temporary reverie, and the sorting had been going on as usual. Instead of disturbing the ceremony, he gave Ron and Hermione significant looks, and went back to observing the Sorting. He saw that Professor McGonagall was about to announce a new student as a shy looking boy joined the Hufflepuff table.

"Panesar, Simi." A shy girl with a long dark braid moved up to the stool.

"RAVENCLAW!" was the response, and she happily skipped to the Ravenclaw table.

The sorting was moving fairly fast, with Hat only occasionally taking more than a few seconds to sort each new student.

After "Zambini, Alex" had been sorted, Professor Dumbledore stood up, and announced, "You may have noticed we have some students left over, this year we have some incoming 6th years, Professor?" he addressed the last part to Professor McGonagall, who nodded and pulled out a second scroll. Meanwhile, in the background, there was some low mumbling, but Dumbledore and McGonagall seemed immune to it, and carried on.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat, and began to read the second scroll.

"Gregors, Cesar" Cesar turned a last nervous look to his friends, and, holding down a powerful urge to cough, picked up Hat, sat on the stool, and put him on his head.

_Hmm, hello Cesar, there's no question where you, belong and stay strong, "_GRYFFINDOR!"

Vastly relieved that he was successfully sorted, he went and sat at the Gryffindor table next to Ron, Harry, sitting next to him, had a funny look on his face.

There were a few more nervous moments for Yvette before Professor McGonagall called, "Hennaniz, Yvette."

She gave her friends one last look back, and mouthed, "Wish me luck!" With that, she went to the stool.

_Yvette, your heart is true and loyal, never forget it, and you will belong to "_HUFFLEPUFF!"

She gave a shy smile to her friends, and headed to her new house's table, a little let down, now she knew that the gang would not all be in one house (but she was still happy to have been successfully sorted).

"Roberts, Michelle." Michelle headed up, and although she had a pretty good idea as to what house she would get into, she was still battling down kamikaze butterflies in the pit of her stomach.

_Michelle, I see healthy thirst for knowledge, you'll do well in " RAVENCLAW_!"

Smiling, she went to her new table, already wondering what her new "housemates" were going to be like, after all, with Cho as an example, who knows who else would be in it.

"Sanchez, Carlos." Carlos stepped forward to the stool, leaving Monica the last one to be sorted.

_Carlos, well, definitely a sly one here, and lots of cunning, yes I can see that, better be "_SLYTHERIN!"

Carlos looked pleased as he went to sit with Draco and company, satisfied with his house.

"Sanchez, Monica." Monica went to the stool.

_Monica, not as conniving as your brother I see, but still, plenty of ambition. Pass this warning onto your friends, the Dark Lord is coming as prophecy foretells, so learn practice and grow strong for the confrontation. As to which house to put you in, you'll be fine in " _SLYTHERIN!"

A little disturbed, Monica headed towards the Slytherin table, where she noticed that if the students there were standing, they would all dwarf her.

Monica was the last to be seated, and when she was comfortably seated near her brother, and a fifth year named Bella, Dumbledore stood up. "Dinner is served."

As soon as he said those words, food began to appear in the golden platters, plates and bowls that were in the middle of the table. Everyone in the great hall suddenly seemed to remember that they hadn't had any food since lunchtime, and the refilling plates seemed all too eager to satiate them.

Carlos in particular seemed eager to get at the food, and ignoring all attempts made by others to start a conversation, discussion, or debate, proceeded to stuff his mouth, to Monica's typical distaste. She was talking to her fellow Slytherins, and in particular with Bella and Draco, and they discussed, in no real order, Carlos' eating habits, food, magic, school, and cows.

Over at Yvette's table, she was conversing shyly with a 6th year called Hannah, and her friends Ernie and Justin. Although Ernie seemed a bit pompous at times, Yvette enjoyed the chance to talk with some other Hogwarts students, and she could tell that she and Hannah would soon be friends.

Michelle on the other hand, was sitting in the middle of a group of Cho's friends, most of whom struck Michelle as complete bimbos. The first year Simi was hanging on to their every word, seemingly desperate to make some friends. As the conversation turned from hair, to makeup, to boys, than back to hair, Michelle began to concentrate solely on eating, for fear that she would throw up, although she did know that Cho, when she wanted to, could be un-bimbo like.

Cesar on the other hand, was having a blast, and he was introduced to the whole Gryffindor gang, including Dean, Neville, and Seamus. During one of the quieter moments, he heard snippets of Ron and Harry's conversation, with Hermione looking on anxiously. Since Cesar was farther away, Harry mouthed to him, "_I'll tell you later_." Cesar, now curious, looked at Hermione, but she was busy looking worriedly at Harry.

After everyone had eaten their fill, Dumbledore stood up again.

"Welcome back for a new year of learning, it's time to fill your heads with all sorts of interesting things before the next break when you can forget it all again. I have a few start-of-term announcements to make. The list of contraband items has been extended to include portable swamps. The full list, which is quite extensive, for anyone who is interested, is located with Argus Filch, he will be happy to show it you. A reminder that the Forbidden Forest is out of bounds for students, hence the name. We also have a few additions on our teaching staff this year. Professor Aspin will be the new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," he said, pointing to Professor Aspin, who rather stuck out of the crowd. She nodded, and Dumbledore resumed, "Quidditch tryouts will be held next month for those wishing to try out for vacant positions, I believe there are a few on every team. All previous life-time bans given out by former Professor Umbridge have been nullified, as have all the Educational Decrees that were instituted last year." After a brief pause in which there was much applause and cheering, he concluded his announcements by saying, "Prefects, you may now lead the first years to their dormitories."

It finally dawned on the gang that they were in different houses, separated for the first time. They knew that they would each be happier in the houses chosen for them, but, at least in the beginning, a few of them felt a little lonesome.

Especially Yvette, who, in essence, knew no one in her new house, and all the people her age had been together for five years, she was feeling more than a bit lost. She felt a little left out as the Hufflepuffs approached their dormitory and the prefect announced the password, loyalty. Somewhat shyly, she entered the common room, which looked suspiciously like a cellar.

Meanwhile, Cesar was having a better time of it. Harry and Ron had introduced him to Neville Longbottom, Dean Thomas, Seamus Finnegan, and other Gryffindors of their year, and they were all trooping toward the seventh floor, chatting happily on extremely full stomachs.

Carlos and Monica were, on the other hand, trooping down with their fellow Slytherins toward the dungeons. Although they did know Draco, and Carlos was talking animatedly with him, if not his two human boulder sidekicks they met, Crabbe and Goyle, they didn't know anyone else, and Monica was feeling a little out of place listening to her new house-mates talking about their breaks. Not for the first time she wished all of the gang had been sorted into the same house. Sighing Monica followed the rest of the Slytherins as Draco said the password, Salazar, and entered into her new common room.

Michelle wasn't that much better off. She did know Cho, and was introduced to the rest of Cho's equally ditzy friends, but it wasn't the same as being with Monica, Yvette, Cesar, and Carlos.

A/N: that's the chapter! It's kind of a filler chapter, but the next one is coming out soon, I hope. Sorry it took so long to update, but with school it's a little harder to keep to a time frame, and during the break I had lots of relatives over, and that didn't help. Hope you liked it, and please review, even if you didn't like it much, lots of thanks go out to puppyluvr for reviewing the last chapter, and I hope I got this out fast enough.


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